Helicopters are more dangerous than most airplanes but both are safer than cars, an analysis shows.
In response to the death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, and seven others in a helicopter crash Sunday, The Points Guy republished a story originally posted in May 2019 that explained the dangers of various modes of transportation.
The findings outlined the number of times people are more likely to die while traveling compared to an airplane, which is ranked as the safest. The website assigned each mode a "death index." The results:
- Intercity rail such as Amtrak has a death index of 20.0.
- Scheduled charter flights have a death index of 34.3
- Mass transit, which includes rail and bus, has a death index of 49.8.
- Non-scheduled charter flight have a death index of 59.5.
- Non-scheduled helicopter flights have a death index of 63.0.
- General aviation such as private planes has a death index of 271.7.
- Cars and SUVs have a death index of 453.6.
The analysis suggests that airline travel is the safest mode of transportation, while flying by helicopter is 63 times more dangerous.
The Points Guy used publicly available data from several government sources for its study.
The National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team to Sunday's crash involving Bryant. There was no early word on the potential cause of the incident, which occurred in a Sikorsky S-76B helicopter.
According to a 2016 report by the International Helicopter Safety Team-Commonwealth of Independent States, the main cause of helicopter crashes is errors (38%), followed by violations (33%), system failure (22%), and other factors (7%).
Inadequate pilot judgment was rated as the top error, at 34.7% of crashes in this category. That was followed by flight below minimum safe attitude (21%) and misassessment of weather (18.2%).