As usual, the statistics are confusing. One, (which carried the headline: “Aviation experts: 2011 was safest year since World War II”), says “Just 498 people died worldwide in civil aviation accidents during 2011″.

The other, (citing a report from the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO, called “2011 State of Global Aviation Safety” – which was apparently issued in December 2011?!), reports ” that global commercial air transport experienced a total of 121 accidents of which 19 were fatal, involving 707 fatalities.”

So I went and had a look at the website of the Geneva based Aircraft Crashes Record Office, or ACRO, (http://www.baaa-acro.com/), and see that they say that there aer 113 accidents and 824 deaths.

You can find the two articles at:

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/science/news/article_1684267.php/Aviation-experts-2011-was-safest-year-since-World-War-II

and

http://www.travel-impact-newswire.com/2012/01/public-safety-aviation-remains-well-ahead-of-road-transport/

You might also want to look at the ACRO statistics which you can find on their site and figures for the last 10 ten years are quoted on Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_accidents_and_incidents