Originally Posted by
lucille
So, from an article in The Australian by Robyn Ironside dated January 25, 2024.
the first paragraph copy and pasted,
…..” Aviation accidents in Australia fell to their lowest level in 17-years in 2023, despite a number of shocking crashes, including three mid-air collisions.
Data provided by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau showed there were 139 accidents reported last year, the lowest since 2006, and well down on the 10-year average of 209 a year.
They included 19 fatal accidents, compared to an average of 21 a year, resulting in 33 deaths – slightly above the ten-year average of 30.5 a year.
ATSB chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said tragically
several crashes involved multiple fatalities, but the increase in lives lost was “statistically irrelevant”.……..”
The last sentence answers Mr. Smiths question…
Lives lost may be “statistically irrelevant “ in that most light aircraft crashes only kill one or two occupants. Compared with the road toll, a few bugsmasher prangs are hardly newsworthy, though the media love beating up such events. More people get killed by lightning strikes and bee stings.
What WILL cause a stir will be the loss of a large transport aircraft. That’s not a case of ‘if’ but ‘when’. “Statistically ”, the longer we go without a major crash, the closer we get to having one.
The resulting statistics will make it into the wider world of international safety analysis and show that we aren’t the best in the world like some of us think we are.
lies, and damned statistics…