What is the risk of dying from an air crash?

Answer 1

The odds of being killed on a single trip in an airliner accident is 52.6 million:1. The odds are lower for smaller aircraft.

If the plane is involved in a fatal crash, there is a 2 in 3 chance of dying.

Maneuvering accidents continue to rise in general aviation

A new report on U.S. general aviation safety trends in 2007 shows maneuvering accidents continue to rise and represent a main cause of fatal crashes in general aviation. The overall accident rate was slightly up at 6.7 per 100,000 flying hours, compared with 2006's rate of 6.06, while fatal accidents decreased, dropping to 1.18 fatal accidents per 100,000 flying hours.

Some other statistics on general aviation flying vs. driving:Death Rate per 100,000 hours flown: 1.18

The chance of dying in a crash each year of flying (100 hours of flying): .118% (or 1 in 847)

Lifetime flying time=500, then chance of dying is .0059% or 1 in 170

1 in 170 pilots that fly 500 hours in a lifetime will die, which is about half the death rate of driving over a lifetime. If a pilot flies 847 hours in a lifetime, their death rate is equal to dying in a car crash.

Link to data - Dying in a car crash: What_are_the_chances_of_dying_in_a_car_accident

In a car, 1 person dies per 57,803,468 miles traveled. At an average speed of 50 miles per hour, that's 1,156,069 hours of driving time per death, thus General Aviation flying is about 11 times more dangerous than driving, hour-to-hour traveled.

However, it takes approximately 1/3 the travel time to fly, so flying is rather than driving to a destination is 3.67 times more dangerous than driving.

Conclusion: It is 3.67 times more dangerous to fly than to drive calculated with the assumptions above.