5.History of Aviation Safety

First Recorded Passenger

The first person to fly as a passenger was Leon DE LaGrange, who rode with French pilot Henri Farman from a meadow outside of Paris in 1908. Charles Furnas became the first American airplane passenger when he flew with Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk later that year.

The Record

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigates transportation accidents. It also publishes transportation safety statistics. As part of its accident investigation function, NTSB gathers facts about the accident and seeks to determine the reasons for it. If appropriate, it can also make recommendations to regulatory bodies for safety improvements.

The airline safety record also compares very favourably with many other everyday activities. Since 1938, when the government began keeping records of aviation accidents, the very worst year for airline fatalities was 1974, with 460 deaths. By contrast, more than 40,000 people die each year in highway accidents. Sadly, in a typical three-month period, more people die on the nation's highways than have died in all airline accidents since the advent of commercial aviation.

The National Safety Council publishes an annual report on accidental deaths in the United States that also helps put the U.S. airline safety record into perspective. According to the council's 1999 report for 1998, 16,600 people died that year in accidental falls, 9,000 from poisoning, 4,100 from drowning, 3,700 from burns, 3,200 from suffocation brought on by ingestion or inhalation of food and other objects, and 900 from guns fired accidentally.

The Government's Safety Role

The federal government plays an important role in assuring the safety of air travel. It has done so since the enactment of the Air Commerce Act of 1926, and it continues to play a leading role in aviation safety today. Although the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 ended all domestic economic regulation of the airlines, it did not end government regulation of safety. All safety requirements and programs in place at that time are still in force, and many new regulations have been added.