THE FLIGHT YOU'RE ON
We don't look up your flight. There is no live per-flight data source wired in yet.
Everything below is true of every modern scheduled flight, and every number is sourced.
Your flight will land safely.
DEATH RISK
1 / 13.7M
per boarding, worldwide
PILOTS ABOARD
2
both type-rated, always
WING LOAD TEST
150%
of the worst it will meet
What is true of every flight like this one
01
Two qualified pilots are flying it, and neither got there quickly.
A US airline transport pilot certificate requires at least 1,500 hours of flight time before you may sit in either seat.
14 CFR § 61.159 (opens in a new window)02
The wings were bent to breaking point before the type was ever allowed to carry you.
Certification requires the structure to hold 150% of the greatest load expected in service, for three full seconds, without failing. Turbulence does not come close.
14 CFR § 25.305 (opens in a new window)03
Turbulence has never brought down a modern commercial jet.
It hurts people who are not belted in. That is the whole risk, and the belt removes it.
FAA — TURBULENCE (opens in a new window)CHANCE YOU STEP OFF SAFELY
99.999993%
The worldwide figure for any scheduled boarding. Every modern flight lands in the same boringly-safe band.
SOURCE: MIT / ARNOLD BARNETT, 2024 (opens in a new window) RISKIEST PARTS OF THIS TRIP, RANKED
01The drive to the airport
02The escalator at Terminal 5
03The temperature of the airport coffee
47The flight itself
THE FACT
The Boeing 787 fleet carried over a billion passengers in under 14 years before its first fatal accident — Air India 171, June 2025, which killed 241 of the 242 people aboard and 19 on the ground.
SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA — AIR INDIA FLIGHT 171 (opens in a new window)A FEW REAL ROUTES, THEIR AIRLINES' ACTUAL RECORDS
BA 249
British Airways
50 and counting years without a fatal accident.
Flying the Boeing 787-9 →
UA 92
United Airlines
35 and counting years without a fatal accident.
Flying the Boeing 767-300 →
AA 100
American Airlines
25 and counting years without a fatal accident.
Flying the Boeing 777-300ER →
JL 44
Japan Airlines
41 and counting years without a fatal accident.
Flying the Airbus A350-900 →
LH 400
Lufthansa
33 and counting years without a fatal accident.
Flying the Boeing 747-8 →
QF 12
Qantas
75 and counting years without a fatal accident.
Flying the Airbus A380-800 →
The 99.999993% figure is 1 − 1/13.7M, from the worldwide passenger death rate per boarding — not a calculation about
your flight specifically. How we source every number.