Comment by ethbr1 | Hacker News Reader

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Comment by ethbr1 | Hacker News Reader

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> And that is how aviation becomes safer every year; at a significant cost of customers lives.

"Significant" might be inaccurate.

It looks like FAA Part 121 accidents over the last 10 years with fatalities have been... 4. [0]

For a total of 6 fatalities.

[0] https://www.ntsb.gov/Pages/AviationQueryV2.aspx; 2018 (1 passenger fatality) https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/DCA18MA142.aspx ; 2019 (3 crew fatalities, cargo flight) https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/DCA19MA086.aspx and (1 passenger fatality) https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/DCA20MA002.aspx ; 2022 (1 ramp fatality) https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/G...

One of which (Atlas Flight 3591) was Pilot error:

> The probable cause of this accident was the inappropriate response by the first officer as the pilot flying to an inadvertent activation of the go-around mode, which led to his spatial disorientation and nose-down control inputs that placed the airplane in a steep descent from which the crew did not recover.

That low accident rate is nigh inconceivable. It's an incredible achievement.

The fatal accident count is higher for GA, but I didn't normalize against flight hours or flights, just glanced at it.

I'm sure there's been a study somewhere that attempts to untangle all the factors that differ between commercial carriers and GA, to see which safety is most sensitive to -- continuous highly professional maintenance, highly trained and experienced crew, rigorous airliner certification regime, etc.

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