20 plane crashes yet 2019 among safest in 74 yrs:Report

Last year saw 20 fatal aircraft accidents involving civilian passenger and cargo flights that killed 283 people. Yet, when it comes to the number of deaths caused by air accidents in the past 74 years, 2019 was the safest, according to a report by India Today.

The year 2019 was the third safest year (between 1946 and 2019) in terms of the number of deaths caused by air accidents as per the data available with the Aviation Safety Network, an independent organisation that records and maintains data on air accidents across the world.

The safest year in terms of the number of deaths was 2017, which witnessed 44 deaths in 10 fatal air accidents across the globe. The year 1972 recorded the highest number of fatalities at 2,472 lives being lost in 65 fatal accidents.

A decline in the rate of air accidents shows the progress of airlines in terms of safety.

According to the Aviation Safety Network's data, fatal air accidents have declined in recent times. The first decade of this century recorded 299 fatal air accidents the world over. But over the next decade (2010-2019), this number fell to 188. In terms of the number of deaths, 8,526 people lost their lives in air accidents between 2000 and 2009, but the number of deaths almost halved to 4,699 in the next decade.

"If the accident rate had remained the same as 10 years ago, there would have been 34 fatal accidents last year. At the accident rate of the year 2000, there would have been even 65 fatal accidents. This shows the enormous progress in terms of safety in the past two decades," Aviation Safety Network's CEO Harro Ranter told the publication.