If you’re the sort of person who looks at news of aircraft accidents and pledges never to get on a plane again, bad news: you’re way, way, WAY safer up there than you are anywhere else.
The chances of dying in a plane crash at all, worldwide, is one in 11 million. If you don’t live in the developing world it drops to one in 14 million. In some African countries and in Latin America those odds get rather closer – one in 800,000 – but even then it’s safer to be in a plane than in most other circumstances.
Except this one.
After all, the things that kill Australians are unsexy, like cancer and heart disease, and you’re still making lifestyle decisions which increase those risks. In fact, here are things you’re more likely to be killed by than a plane crash:
Food Poisoning: one in three million
Death by ladder: one in 2.3 million
Falling off a bed: one in two million
Flesg eating bacteria eats your flesh: on in one million
Hit by a meteorite: one in 700,000
Death by bath: one in 685,000
Death by fireworks: one in 615,488
Struck by lightning: one in 136,011
Skydiving accident: one in 100,000
Drowning: one in 80,000
Bee sting: one in 79,842.
Death by car accident: one in 6000
Cease those hijinks!
Also, fun fact: cows are 22 times deadlier than sharks. So there’s that.
Mind you, your chances of dying in a rollercoaster accident is one in 1.5 billion. So the lesson is clear: where possible, travel by rollercoaster.