Nobody died in a commercial jet crash in all of 2017

It was a good year to fly on a plane.
(Image credit: iStock)

No commercial jets fatally crashed anywhere in the world in 2017, making it the safest year on record for the aviation industry, The Independent reports.

By comparison, 217 people died in fatal airplane events in 2016, 471 people died in 2015, and 864 people died in 2014. In 2017, just 13 people died in airplane crashes, and even then exclusively on small turbo-prop aircrafts, Dutch aviation consultancy To70 found. Other fatal airplane crashes, including one that killed 12 people in Costa Rica on Sunday, did not count toward the overall total because the plane did not meet the study's threshold of weighing at least 5,700 kilograms.

The accidents in 2017 included an air ambulance crashing in Angola and a Let 410 aircraft crashing in Russia's far east. The odds of being in a deadly airplane crash are now one in 16 million, To70 said, with lead researcher Adrian Young cautioning: "It is unlikely that this historic low will be maintained; in part, these very positive figures rest on good fortune."

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The consultancy's report also noted the potential for the number of fatalities to rise in the future, citing electronic devices as fire risks.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.