2012 Safest for Commercial and Corporate Flights

choi

Andy Pasztor, Flying Is Safest Since Dawn of Jet Age. Wall Street Journal, Dec 29, 2012 (front page).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 07791443669224.html

(a) Excerpt in the windows of print:
(i) Of the year's 22 fatal crashes around the world, 10 involved passenger aircraft.
(ii) Some 2.9 billion passengers took to the air in 2012, a 5.5% bump from the previous year.

(b) Quote:

"There have been 22 fatal crashes world-wide this year, a number that includes all passenger and cargo flights * * * The figures were compiled before Saturday's crash of a Russian-built jet near Moscow, in which four people were killed when the plane careened off a runway and caught fire. * * * For the first time since the Flight Safety Foundation began compiling its detailed annual safety analysis in the late 1990s, this year has produced more business-jet crashes than passenger-plane accidents world-wide

"The US hasn't had a fatal accident since a commuter plane crashed near Buffalo, NY, in 2009.

"Of the year's 22 fatal crashes, just 10 involved passenger aircraft, and just three of those were larger Western-built jetliners [the graphic shows only 3 passenger-jetliners crashed in 2012]. The other seven passenger-plane incidents involved Western- or Russian-built turboprops * * * The statistics again underscore that turboprop operations, which typically carry fewer passengers and often tend to serve smaller airports than scheduled jets, have significantly higher crash rates.

"There were 470 fatalities from air accidents in 2012, compared with an average of more than 770 people who died annually over the decade.  

(c) Note:
(i) It is unclear if the figure (22 crashes) include light aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_aircraft
(ii)
(A) turboprop
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turboprop
(The first American turboprop engine was the General Electric XT31, to power an aircraft that flew in December 1945)

Just view photos.
(B) Most modern aircraft (ie, jets) use turbofans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbofan