There are few industries in the world that have accomplished what the US commercial aviation industry has – an almost perfect record of safely delivering passengers and doing so consistently for many years. According to the Flight Safety Foundation, in its March 2024 Safety Report, 2023 was one of the safest years ever for commercial aviation.
Misunderstood by the public is that beyond engineering highly effective design and manufacturing processes for aircraft, what has truly made aviation safer has been the development and presence of operating standards. It is this advancement of preflight and in-flight checklists developed to interrupt the tendency of people to forget things that has virtually eliminated human error from flying.