I know people who are aware of the stats yet still feel less safe flying than driving. As @momofboiler1 said, their fear seems to stem from the difference in outcomes.
They know they’re 100 times more likely to be in a car crash than an airplane crash, but a car crash isn’t necessarily going to kill them; whereas a midair incident almost certainly will.
And crashes over residential or business areas - those flying cars scare me unless they are required to fly over the interstate.
Land transportation also allows for more control when you are the driver and even the passenger.
I think this is a lot of it. Drivers feel a sense of control, and in fact we do have control over some safety related factors. For example we can avoid driving when under the influence, refrain from texting and other distractions, maintain our vehicles properly, drive carefully and follow laws, pay attention to road conditions, etc. Of course all of that doesn’t guarantee safety on the road, but it’s tempting to feel that we can improve our odds.
But how many of those who think that car driving is safer than flying on commercial airlines actually do all of the above to make car driving as safe as possible?
One of my first jobs was at a firm that did aviation insurance defense. Most cases involved small planes and helicopters, but we had a few larger crashes too. There are a lot more accidents than you’d think, many like the two planes crashing into each other in AZ today or the Alaska one last week.
I started a new job the day after John Denver crashed his glider. He’d been in our office the Friday before as this organization shared another plane with him (with commercial pilots, I think it held about 10 passengers). We bought the plane from his estate.
Really there are a lot of small plane crashes we never hear about on a national level.
That’s why I no longer get in small planes. No way, no how…
Yes there are! Around 1200 per year.
These accidents happen in what is called general aviation, which is roughly 10x more dangerous than driving a car, and roughly as dangerous as riding a motorcycle. This is contrast to commercial aviation, which is far safer than driving.
A number of life insurance policies ask if you are a general aviation pilot for that reason.
The flight that crashed in Alaska was a commercial flight even though the plane was tiny. That’s why it is being mentioned among the recent commercial air catastrophes.
NTSB has released a preliminary report on the crash.
NTSB updates:
The preliminary report:
More information from flightradar24.com :
Just reading through that briefly, that situation sounded like an accident waiting to happen.
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