How is it safer to travel in an airplane than in a car?

Yes, but won't the plane take too much space up on the road?

If you think air travel isn't as safe as driving a car next time you're at a red light look who's driving the car next to you.

There are less drunk pilots in the skies?

Planes are safer because less of them crash on average than cars.

People are nervous in planes because they do not have control,also a plane crash is very big news predominately because there are so few of them. Air Travel is far safer than road travel.We just do not get news headlines about all the road deathsPlane crashes are extremely rare when you take into account the number of planes in the air every day. Just at London Heathrow one takes off every 60 seconds and that is only one of 4 London Airports

The stat is arrived at by comparing the number of passenger vehicles on the road with the number of airplanes in active service and the number of passenger they carry. Then you look at the number of accidents for both and find that when compared to each other, given the above information, there are far fewer incidents of accidents and fatalities in air travel than in automobiles, relatively speaking. This is relative, because far more people drive than fly, so the actual numbers are represented by percentage points.

Safer per mile, certainly. But most people actually reckon the length of journeys per minute, not per mile. On that basis, the two more-or-less equal out. So if you *have* to go on a long journey, the plane is safer. But if you are wondering to go on a one-hour car drive or a local one-hour flight, the two are the same.

http://www.geocities.com/khlim777_my/ashowsafe1.htm might make you want to fly on a place
but http://www.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/getline/2004-11-08-ask-the-captain_x.htm might make you not want to.

Personally it would matter if I went somewhere far away. If I went on a plane to somewhere I could drive to in 5 hours, I wouldn't take one. On cars, I would be able to experience more than a plane. All you do in a plane is watch movies, eat nuts, etc. But I would take a plane if I was going somewhere 15 hours away with a car. It would take a long time to go with a car and lots of gas.

it is safer in a plane because there arent many planes in your vector and altitude and when you are on a colision couse the tower or whatever will warn you about it.

It's safer because nobody is going to crash you.
And, it's also 9 times as fast! You could drive 10hours, or you could just fly one hour... You will be bored that hour... but you'll win 9 hours...

Well in a plane you dont have to worry abut some drunk idiot crashing into your car crippeling you for the rest f your life. In a plane all you need to worry about is if the plane crashes will your body be identifiable or a pile of ash somewhere.

Lower death rate per passenger.

This is a very misunderstood subject. Most people think that flying is much safer than travelling in a car. This is a myth perpetuated by airline publicists making creative use of statistics.

Here is the reality: in fact, you’re about 12 times more likely to die in the air than in a car ride. Let us look at the facts:

1. When the airline industry gives figures about its safety record, it quotes statistics showing that there are about 0.03 fatalities per 100 million kilometres flown, compared with 0.10 fatalities per 100 million kilometres for rail travel and 0.175 per million kilometres for cars. In other words, they are saying that air travel is about
3 times safer than rail travel and 5 times safer than car travel per 100 million kilometres of distance travelled.

2. But these statistics are highly skewed. Typically, planes travel huge distances but 70% of aircraft accidents take place on take-off and landing, manoeuvres which represent only 4% of journey time and are therefore relatively much more dangerous.

3. A much more realistic figure is the rate of fatalities per number of journeys made. By this measure, air travel takes on a very different complexion. Fatalities per 100 million passenger journeys are (on average) 4.5 for cars, 2.7 for trains, and 55.0 for planes! This means you are 12 times more likely to die on a commercial jet compared to a car, and 20 times more likely to die on a commercial jet compared to a train.