2024 ended on a sorrowful note, with airplane crashes resulting in many casualties. On Dec. 30, Jeju Air Flight 2216 crashed at South Korea's Muan International Airport, killing 179 people and shocking the world. This came after 38 people were killed when Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 was allegedly hit by a drone missile after it entered Russian airspace in the city of Grozny on Christmas Day. On Dec. 29, Air Canada Express Flight 2259 was forced to make an emergency landing at Halifax Stanfield International Airport in Nova Scotia. It is operated by PAL Airlines and carried 73 passengers. Fortunately, there were no deaths or injuries.
This series of plane crashes triggered fears among travelers about the risk of taking an airplane. However, the International Air Transport Association reported that in 2023, the risk of plane accidents was one in every 1.26 million flights. Between 2018 and 2022, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology statistician estimated that the risk of death in a plane crash was one in 13.7 million. By contrast, motor vehicle accidents in America yield an average of more than 100 deaths a day. There is about a one-in-7,000 chance you get killed in a vehicular crash. This shows that there are more people dying on highways than on commercial flights.
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