Why flying is safest for travel

The horrific scenes at Haneda Airport this week – of a Japan Airlines Airbus A350 engulfed in a sea of flames after hitting a coast guard plane on a runway – will raise issues of aviation safety and may perturb those about to fly.

Yet, far from portraying flying as a death wish, the incident confirms that commercial aviation is the safest form of transport on the planet.

That’s because every crash or incident over decades has been analysed and steps have been taken to ensure disasters don’t happen again.

The fact that the Japan Airlines crew on the Airbus managed to evacuate all 379 passengers and crew safely before the aircraft was wholly consumed by fire is testament to protocols implemented – and new materials used – after previous deadly on-ground plane fires.

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“Runway incursions” like this are also increasingly rare – although they can have catastrophic consequences.

No doubt, Japanese investigators will come up with recommendations that will reduce the chances of two planes being in the same place at the same time on an airport.

Those recommendations will be studied worldwide by the industry and implemented elsewhere if applicable.

Aviation safety has become top-class because it has been learned from “lessons in blood”.

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