Safety in the Air

Report Outline
Record in Recent Years
Deregulation and Delays
Developing Technology
Special Focus

Record in Recent Years

Improvements in All the Safety Categories

Mile for mile, flying is the safest way to travel. The number of people killed every year in auto accidents far outstrips the number killed in airplane accidents. In 1983, 42,500 Americans died on the nation's highways; 1,155 persons lost their lives in plane accidents. Only 12 were killed in accidents involving commercial airliners. The statistics indicate that flying is by far the safest mode of transportation. Yet recent stories of near misses in midair—one of them involving the vice president's plane—raise anew the question of how safe the nation's skies are.

Virtually everyone involved in aviation, including safety experts, agrees that flying in the United States—whether on large commercial airlines, commuter lines, charters or private aircraft—is extraordinarily safe. “These last four or five years have been the safest since the jet age began back in 1958,” said James McCarthy, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association of America, the trade group that represents scheduled airlines. William Fromme, director of the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Aviation Safety, seconded that assessment: “No matter how you look at the safety records—midair collisions, fatalities, injuries, hull damages, hull losses, dollar losses—you name it and every single criteria of safety has improved and continues to improve.”

Shortage of Experienced Air Controllers

There are some clouds in the safety picture, however. Even the aviation industry's biggest boosters acknowledge that there is a shortage of experienced air traffic controllers. FAA officials and many in the industry admit that the shortages have contributed to lengthy delays at many airports but deny that they affect safety. Paul R. Ignatius, president and chief executive officer of the Air Transport Association, for example, told the Senate Aviation Subcommittee Sept. 7 that the air traffic control system “is insufficient to accommodate the demands placed upon it by the airlines, general aviation, and other users without associated delays.” But, he added, “there is no question that the primary requirement for safety has been met.”