The Aviation Safety Network reported that 2017 was the safest year ever for commercial aviation. Throughout the year, there were 10 fatal airliner accidents, resulting in 44 occupant fatalities and 35 casualties on the ground. This makes 2017 the safest year in history, both in terms of the number of fatal accidents and the number of fatalities. In contrast, 2016 saw 16 accidents with a total of 303 lives lost.
As of December 31, there had been a record period of 398 days without any passenger jet airliner accidents. Additionally, there had been 792 days since the last civil aircraft accident that claimed over 100 lives.
Out of the 10 accidents in 2017, five involved cargo flights and five were passenger flights. With an estimated global air traffic of about 36,800,000 flights, the accident rate equates to one fatal passenger flight accident per 7,360,000 flights.
This low number of accidents is consistent with a longstanding trend. Since 1997, the average number of airliner accidents has shown a steady and significant decline. This improvement is largely due to the ongoing safety efforts by international aviation organizations like ICAO, IATA, and the Flight Safety Foundation, along with the aviation industry itself.