Tee Emm:
Standard night-time ITCZ penetration technique in the Handley Page Hastings, mid 1960's. Reminds me of the night that we.....:)

What makes Airliners So Safe?

They are so big. Size matters.










:}

(Actual answer is safety culture and professional pilots).

Managers.


Sorry couldn't resist.

Hard work, dedicated people and a willingness to learn from mistakes.

That's what makes aviation safe, technology is just an aid. Without the first stuff, the tech is irrelevant.

FlyingSportsman:
What about a better reliability of critical components, e.g. the engines?
I was under the impression they do fail less this day than they did 20 or 30 years ago.

On the other hand, I'm a bit more reserved on the "glass cockpit": Great tool when it works, but has safety related issues, too:
- when it doesn't work so well (Slasher's post #11) / when things go fast (typically, I'm more proficient to read/interpret a needle going down the gauge, than a tape going fast)
- (perhaps not so often related to airliners) with so fancy screens just in front of one's nose, one may look more to those screen, less to the real world outside, even in VMC and worst even under VFR...

By the way, reading your list, I think your real question should be written as: "What make airliners safer today than before", not *just* "What make airliners so safe" ;)

The last 30 years has been about taking the pilots out of the cockpit..massive automation, redundancy, gear that does the navigation and situational awareness. Combine with your typical airline pilot doing the same route, same canned flight plans, same approaches, same airports everyday for three months means that he doesn't make a decision, nothing new is thrown at him.

It's the reason why they can put kids in the cockpit, the gear is doing all the work.

I would have thought that the list would be

- very reliable and mission-capable, powerful, fully de-iced aircraft, which can outclimb 99% of hazardous weather and has radar to avoid the stuff it can't outclimb immediately

- most routes flown between straightforward airports

- high level of cockpit automation AND it gets used all the time

- the airline best known for very tight timing (Ryanair) operates brand new (very low downtime) aircraft

- well organised crew training and recurrent training

One could argue about any of the above but take out any one point and see how it stacks up. It won't.