Why do so few planes crashes occur?

The quick answer is, the authorities responsible have regulated everything there is to regulate about aviation, based on past experience. Every time an accident happens, they investigate, determine what went wrong, and implement changes to make that accident much, much less likely to happen again. For example:. read more

Planes don’t crash because society has decided that plane crashes are very, very bad. Every time a plane crashes, there is a huge investigation, and the cause of the crash is determined. Then steps are taken to try to ensure that a plane the cause of that crash will never cause another plane to crash in the same way. read more

In fact, in airline crashes overall, more people die in the post-crash fire (burns and smoke inhalation) than die in the actual crash. 68% of deaths are due to fire, according to historical NTSB data. read more

In a typical crash, for example, the weather is poor — not terrible, necessarily, but bad enough that the pilot feels a little bit more stressed than usual. In an overwhelming number of crashes, the plane is behind schedule, so the pilots are hurrying. read more