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2017 Safest Year in Air Travel

According to world aviation officials, 2017 was recorded as the safest year in air
travel. There were no deaths caused by commercial plane crashes last year.

However, the total number of people killed on civilian aircraft and cargo planes
has increased slightly. The deadliest incident occurred in January 2017 when a
Turkish cargo jet crashed into a village in rural Kyrgyzstan as it tried to land in
foggy weather. All four crew members and 35 people on the ground were killed.

Over the past 20 years, fatalities caused

by commercial jetliners have sunken
steadily. In 2005, for example, over a
thousand people were killed on board
commercial flights.

Air travel has become very safe. It is estimated that the accident rate is at 0.06 per
one million flights or one fatal accident every 16 million flights.

According to flight experts, chances are that the zero death toll on commercial
airlines will not be repeated. Because there are over 37 million flights every year,
some kind of accident involving the death of passengers is bound to happen in the
near future.

The decline in passenger deaths is due to increased safety measures by the airline
industry. Airplanes are becoming more robust and airlines tend to buy newer,
more modern aircraft. But aviation officials are worried about the risk of in-flight
fires caused by an increase in lithium-ion batteries that are being brought on
board, mostly through smartphones and notebooks.

Among the world's largest countries, the UK has the best air-safety record. Since
the end of the 1980s, there has been no fatal accident involving a British plane. In
contrast, African countries have the worst safety records.
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WORDS

 according to = as reported by ...

 air-safety record = here: facts about how safe travel has been in the past
 aviation = everything that is connected to flying an airplane
 bound to happen = probably will happen
 cargo plane = plane that transports goods, but not passengers
 civilian aircraft = private airplanes
 commercial airplane = an airplane that flies on a regular schedule with
passengers on board
 decline = when something is reduced or goes down
 due to = because of
 estimate = to calculate how big something is based on the information that
you have
 fatal = deadly
 fatality = death in an accident
 foggy = cloudy air on the ground which is difficult to see through
 however = but
 in contrast = on the other side
 incident = here: accident involving an airplane
 increase = go up
 in-flight = during a journey; when a plane is in the air
 jetliner = modern, passenger airplane
 lithium-ion = modern, rechargeable battery type used in smartphones,
tablets etc..
 occur = happen
 official = person in a high position in an organisation
 record = write down
 repeat = happen again
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 robust = strong; not likely to have any problems

 rural = in the countryside
 safety measures = something you do which helps to make things safer
 slightly = a bit
 zero death toll = here: situation in which no people are killed