A flying tire. A runway roll-off. Multiple emergency landings. It may seem like mishaps involving planes have been growing in frequency. But experts say there is no cause for major alarm, as the aviation industry’s safety record remains better than it’s ever been when measured by lives lost. “This is not a safety trend,” said John Cox, a pilot and the president and CEO of Safety Operating Systems LLC, of the recent spate of high-profile incidents. According to the aviation industry publication FlightGlobal, there were just six recorded fatal commercial aviation accidents worldwide in 2023, resulting in 115 deaths — the fewest on record. National Transportation Safety Board data confirms the downward trend: Compared with 27 major accidents involving large U.S. carriers in 2008, there were just 20 in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available. The rate of accidents involving injury or death to a passenger…
