Here are the most understandable statistics I've seen to date that compare the risks of flying and driving. Remember that almost all of the danger in flying comes during take-off and landing, so the length of the flight isn't very important.
In terms of time, at 55 MPH, 11 minutes 47 seconds of driving [10.8 miles] equals the risk of taking a flight. Since the average airline trip is 694 miles and takes about an hour and a half, 11 minutes 47 seconds of driving has the same risk of fatality as the average airline flight. But it also means that 11 minutes 47 seconds of driving equals flying eight hours to Europe or flying fourteen hours to the Orient.Don't forget that these stats involve rural Interstate driving. If flying were compared with driving on urban or suburban roads and streets, a trip of just one to two miles would be equal in risk to one flight. This means the risk you face every two to four minutes of non-interstate driving equals the risk of one flight. ...
Notice that these figures INCLUDE the fatalities of the passengers on the hijacked 9/11 flights. What if terrorism increases? How much would terrorist have to increase for flying to become as risky as driving? Sivak and Flannagan figure disastrous airline incidents on the scale of those of September 11th would have to occur 120 times over a 10-year period, or about once a month for flying to become as risky as rural interstate driving.
Flying is probably scarier because we do it more rarely and we're not in control of the plane outselves. People are terrible assessors of risk.
I remember the first time I flew. The thing that struck me the most, initially, was the thrust when the engines kicked in for take-off.
I've given some thought to it recently as I'm going on a flight.
I think part of the increased risk perception not only comes from the lack of control, but also because flight tends to make one more aware of the risks throughout the duration of the flight. That is, simply being in the air increases the perceived danger, whereas being on the ground does not.
Or perhaps I am rationalizing.
I think it might be because it's hard to imagine a "minor accident" in an aircraft. The thing that worries me most about flying is the pressurised cabin, recirculating air etc. Do your statistics take account of deep vein thrombosis?
Risk of terrorism is almost always tiny. The news makes it hard to keep perspective. If you find yourself deciding against some activity (short of moving to Iraq or Uzbekistan or something) because your worried about the threat of terrorism, you're probably being a little bit silly.