The Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Center (“JACDEC”) is an airline safety think-tank in Germany. Last week, it rated the safety records of 60 air carriers worldwide. It considered the number of crashes and fatalities each airline has experienced – regardless of cause – since 1983. Its “time-weighted” methodology placed the greatest emphasis on recent crashes.
The safest airline: Finnair. The least safe: China Airlines.
Over the past few years, most fatal crashes have been attributable to foreign airlines. Nonetheless, under JACDEC’s methodology, the US carriers didn’t fare all that well.
United Airlines was ranked 31st, American 42nd, US Airways 44th, Alaska 45th, and SkyWest was ranked one of the ten worst at 51st. Worse even than Aeroflot, the notoriously dangerous Russian airline.
The entire list is here. The translations for the German column headings is here.