Air mishaps such as the Air Canada runway explosion are spectacular, but flying is still the safest way to travel, reports John Downes
Tuesday's brush with death for the passengers of an Air France Airbus - which burst into flames in Canada after overshooting the runway - was a miraculous escape, but will have attracted the attention of holiday-bound travellers already nervous about flying.
None of the 297 passengers and 12 crew on board the Airbus A340 were fatally injured. But just how safe is it to travel by air? And what is the safest way to travel here or abroad - by road, rail or air?
European Union statistics show that in western Europe, fatalities occur only once in 10 million flights (apart from individual medical emergencies). According to the British-based Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA), 21 people died as a result of air accidents in the UK in 2002- 2003. However in the 12 months before, more than 3,000 Britons died in accidents around the home.
When compared with the number of journeys taken, air travel is statistically the safest way to reach your destination, according to David Learmount of Flight International magazine.
He points out that the aircraft involved in Tuesday's incident, an Airbus A340, is one of a new generation of planes which have "so far not hurt a soul". Statistically, the chances of being in an air accident today are less than one-sixth of what they were in 1979, he adds.
This is partly due to increased reliability of aircraft, meaning they are less likely to crash and are made of better, more fire-resistant materials.
"There are very, very few accidents these days that involve major world airlines flying the very latest generation aircraft. They just don't happen any more," Mr Learmount says. "Per mile travelled, aviation is massively safer than any other form of transport, including rail."
Nevertheless, to comfort the anxious, taking the train is also statistically extremely safe. The ROSPA says there were 50 rail fatalities in the UK between 2002 and 2003 - again comparing favourably with domestic accidents. In Ireland, there has not been a rail death as the result of a collision or derailment since 1983, says Barry Kenny of Iarnród Éireann.
This is partly because the safety standards are a lot more stringent than on the road.
"On the road, there are a lot of factors which the individual driver cannot control. So rail travel would certainly be the safest land-based mode of transport," he says.
Some countries, such as India, do have certain "issues", such as overcrowding, when attempting to make their rail systems safe. But even in these countries, the train would come out on top compared to road deaths.
Once you are on the road, the larger the vehicle you are in, the safer you will be.Travelling by bus or coach is also relatively safe. Before this year's tragic Navan bus crash in which five schoolgirls lost their lives, there had not been a fatality among Bus Éireann passengers for 22 years.
The good safety record of bus travel would seem to be borne out by a recent UK Department of Transport survey. Travelling by either bus or rail were safer forms of land travel in terms of the number of deaths per billion passenger kilometres between 1993 and 2002.
At 0.4 per billion each, this was far below cars (3), walking (54) and motorbikes (113).
"The statistics indicate that bus travel is comparatively a very safe way to travel," Bus Éireann says. "But obviously one accident is one accident too many. For this reason we invest very heavily in driver training and updating our fleet."
Road travel, by car, motorbike or walking, is the riskiest way of getting around.
Brian Farrell of the National Safety Council points out there were 376 people killed on Irish roads last year. By the end of last month, a further 222 people had died - 145 of them drivers or passengers in cars.
"We try to say this over and over again. Using the roads is the most dangerous thing you do every day," he says. "But because it is habitual, we become immune to the risks. This is true regardless of where you are."