The recent Germanwings crash in the French Alps this week has sparked discussion as to whether air travel is still the ultimate safest way to get around. Over the past twelve months there has been a number of high profile disasters which have shocked the aviation industry.
I spoke with a frequent flyer and self confessed aviation geek about aviation safety and his thoughts on the Germanwings disaster which occurred on Tuesday in the French Alps.
What are your thoughts on the Germanwings crash?
"I was obviously shocked upon hearing the awful news of the Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps - Of course it's the latest in a series of high profile aviation disasters over the past 12 months but this one does feel all the more shocking to me given that it's closer to home on a well known airline flying one of the most popular aircraft."
"Also I am in the middle of a 5 flight sectors in 5 days trip around Europe & was flying over the French Alps on a German Airline (albeit a different airline TUIfly) myself just 24hrs prior to it happening, which does make you think a bit."
As a frequent flyer do you feel safe using this mode of transport?
"As a frequent flyer yes I certainly do feel safe when flying even after what has happened over the past year, the overall trend over the past 30-40 years has seen a continuous reduction in the number of accidents & that's despite massive increase in air traffic worldwide."
"I believe the average number of accidents/fatalities over the past 10 years is approx 4 times less than in it was in the 60's and 70's and there are around 4 times as many flights taking place, that therefore is a 16 fold reduction. A lot of lessons are learned from previous accidents all of which are thoroughly investigated and changes are put into place to prevent the same/similar occurrence from happening again, therefore every accident does make flying safer in the future."
"Yes, there will be some years that look less safe than other years, and that's because there are so few major occurrences in any given year that you are going to get the odd spikes in the statistics where some years it looks like things have got less safe, but the long term trend should continue to be a downward one in number of accidents/fatalities."
