Is it true there's a greater chance of being killed by lightning than of dying on a flight?
When people try to calm others who are afraid of flying some will claim it's more likely you will be killed by lightning than dying on a flight. Is there any truth in this?
Best Answer
According to this ATAG report there were 37.4M commercial flights in 2014. There were 20 A1 accidents per Aviation Safety. So if you randomly pick a flight, your chances of boarding one which will get into a hull loss accident is one in two million.
According to the NOAA between 1959-1994 on average 90 people were killed by lightning. The 1959 population of the USA was 178M, 1994 population was 260M, taking the mean the chances of killed by lightning is 1:2.43M -- about the same as the flights.
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What are the odds of being killed by lightning?
But the odds of being struck by lightning in a given year are less than one in a million, and almost 90% of all lightning strike victims survive.Are you more likely to be struck by lightning than be in a plane crash?
Not only are you more likely to be struck by lightning than be in a plane crash, you are even more likely to be struck this year. Not to \u201cshock\u201d you, but the rate plummets to 1 in 13,000 when you look at the odds of this happening in your lifetime.What do you have a 1 chance of dying from?
The odds of dying from an injury in 2019 were 1 in 1,306 according to the latest data available. The lifetime odds of dying from an injury for a person born in 2019 were 1 in 17. The odds of dying from a drug poisoning of any kind were 1 in 5,280 in 2019; the lifetime odds were 1 in 67 for a person born in 2019.Whats more likely than dying in a plane crash?
2017 transportation casualty figures show that individuals are far more likely to die on a highway, train or boat than in an airplane. Highway deaths, in fact, accounted for over 95% of all traffic deaths, while there were no deaths related to commercial airline flights.Spandau Ballet - True (HD Remastered)
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Answer 2
Yes and no. (but mostly yes)
Considering the USA, because it is easier to find statistics, during 1 year (1999. ok, that's old, but in the newer report I could not find exact numbers).
- Lightnings According to @chx's answer, ~90 people are killed by lightning every year.
- Flights 691 people died in a plane accident. Source National Transportation Safety Board page 30. However, 628 died in private aircrafts. Apparently the remaining 33 died in commercial flights.
So yes, if you consider commercial flights, which is probably the common meaning, but no if you consider all flights.
That could be very different in other countries.
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