How many 747 crashes

For the math-challenged, like me, that's the number at the bottom of a fraction. You can calculate the risk of flying by:. They all produce accurate numbers, but which one is most relevant to you depends on your personal flying patterns.

Some fliers take lots of short flights and some take longer ones, for example. Since the overwhelming majority of the few plane crashes that do occur take place in connection with takeoffs and landings, the risk is less a matter of how far you fly and more a matter of how often.

If you're a frequent flier, then the risk per flight means more. For occasional long-distance fliers, the risk per mile means more. A frequent, long-distance flier would want to consider both. Here's another number problem with the risk of flying: do you calculate the risk on the basis of one year, or an average of five years, or 10, or 20? Most years no plane crashes occur, or at least very few. So the number of victims per year goes up radically in years when there are crashes.

Just look at the spikes in the number of deaths from plane crashes by year in the graph at right. So to calculate the risk per year can be misleading. One really bad year would skew the numbers toward the more frightening.

A year with no crashes makes it look like it's zero. But if you average things over, say, five years, or 10, some other factors muddy the waters. In the last five years safety factors have changed.

Advanced weather radar has been installed near major airports, and new FAA rules have gone into effect. The numbered events are those involving at least one passenger death where the aircraft flight had a direct or indirect role, and where at least one of the dead passengers was not a stowaway, hijacker, or saboteur. The crash killed 55 of the passengers and 4 of the 17 crew. Lufthansa plane crashes 9 May ; Iranian Air Force ; flight 48; near Madrid, Spain: The aircraft was operating as a military flight from Tehran, Iran to Madrid, Spain and encountered an area of thunderstorms near its destination.

The aircraft was apparently struck by lightning, which ignited fuel vapors from a tank in the left wing. The subsequent explosion damaged the wing and eventually led to a major structural failure of the wing.

All 10 crew members and seven passengers were killed. Because of limited visibility and communications difficulties between air traffic control and the KLM aircraft, the KLM started its takeoff while the Pan Am aircraft was on the same runway. All passengers and 14 crew were killed in the KLM Nine of the 16 crew and of the passengers on the Pan Am flight were killed. KLM plane crashes. Because of limited visibility and communications difficulties between air traffic control and a KLM aircraft, the KLM started its takeoff and collided with the Pan Am that was taxiing on the same runway.

All passengers and 14 crew on the KLM were killed. El AL plane crashes. Flight International magazine states that this accident was due to a failure of an attitude detector. Air India plane crashes. The aircraft caught fire after it slid to a stop. Six of the 14 crew members and eight of the passengers were killed. Also killed was one person on the ground.

Korean Air plane crashes. There were 16 others on board who were injured. None of the 10 crew members or the remaining passengers were killed. More information on this event. Two of the passengers were killed. China Airlines plane crashes. All passengers and 29 crew were killed.

All 20 crew and of the passengers were killed. Avianca Airlines plane crashes. The aircraft broke up in flight and crashed into the sea. All passengers and 22 crew were killed. About miles from San Francisco, incorrect crew responses to a failure of its right outboard engine led to a loss of control and an uncontrolled descent.

The aircraft lost about 30, feet, and a combination of high airspeeds and high g-forces led to the aircraft sustaining damage to the horizontal stabilizers, wings, and landing gear doors. The crew successfully diverted to San Francisco, CA.

All 22 crew members and passengers survived. Ogura, Japan: The aircraft had a sudden decompression that damaged hydraulic systems and the vertical fin. That damage also disabled the flight controls for the rudder and elevator. All 15 crew members and of the passengers were killed. Japan Air Lines plane crashes. Four hijackers boarded the aircraft after entering the airfield by vehicle and attempted to take control of the aircraft while it was on the ground.

However, the flight crew managed to leave the aircraft through the cockpit escape hatch. The hijackers killed 20 of the passengers before the hijacking ended. All passengers and 19 crew were killed. South African Airways plane crashes. It shows us the most popular airliners in the world - and how many fatal passenger crashes each has had. It does not include terror attacks and there are other caveats too: for instance, the DC-9 have been in service for a long time and the current fleet is now reduced due to retirements.

But it is a unique dataset - let us know what you think. DATA: download the table as a spreadsheet. Flickr Please post your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group or mail us at datastore guardian.

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