The crash landing of US Airways flight 1549 into the Hudson River brought the public’s attention to the risk of bird strikes during airline travel. Less than a month later we are faced with yet another commercial plane crash with a horribly different ending. Late last night, a Continental connecting flight en route to Buffalo from Newark airport crashed into a Buffalo suburb, killing 49 people on board and one on the ground.

Though these two incidents have shed the spotlight on aviation safety and risk, it is important to note the overall strong safety record of the U.S. commercial aviation industry. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, from January of 1982 to August of 2006 there were 48 U.S. commercial airline accidents (merely two per year), though not all resulted in fatalities. It is also important to note that there is less than one accident per 100,000 flight hours of U.S. commercial airlines, according the NTSB.

Weather plays a part in many fatal airline crashes. Investigators will begin the process of determining if the mix of sleet and snow in the area was the cause of this most recent deadly disaster.

Emily Holbrook
Click here to comment