Air travel was miserable in 2017, but at least nobody died in a commercial jet crash

American Airlines jets taxi at Miami International Airport. (Lynne Sladky/AP)

Your legroom and your patience for bag fees shrank in 2017, but there was one historic positive outcome for air travelers. Not one person died in an accident on a commercial passenger jet the entire year, the safest year ever, according to two airline safety groups.

That does not mean 2017 was a year without aircraft crashes that killed passengers. Dutch aviation consult group t070 and the Aviation Safety Network found no fatalities because of accidents involving large commercial jets most popular with civilian passengers.

Those important distinctions exclude deaths involving military and cargo airline crashes and accidents involving smaller, propeller-powered aircraft, like the 12 passengers killed in a Cessna crash in Costa Rica on Sunday in the closing hours of the year, and the 16 U.S. troops killed in a cargo plane crash in July. Two crashes involving turboprop planes were recorded by to70, in which 13 people died.

The Aviation Safety Network estimated there were nearly 37 million flights in 2017, more than any year in history, meaning that aircraft mishaps are declining even as the number of flights continues to rise. The last commercial jet airline crash in which more than 100 people were killed was Oct. 31, 2015, when 224 lives were lost after a flight from Russia broke apart in Egypt. The ASN, which tracks crashes using different metrics from those to70 uses, showed 10 recorded crashes involving small propeller planes and cargo aircraft, killing 44 passengers and 35 people on the ground in 2017. In 2016, the group counted 16 accidents with 303 dead.

The decline is a remarkable outcome for commercial airliners that managed to evade airborne disasters but racked up numerous fiascoes involving testy passengers and hostile crew. The combination of more flights, social media, rising fees and diminishing personal space has sparked a renaissance of air-passenger outrage. United Airlines stock plunged after video of a bloodied man dragged off a flight went viral; a Japanese airline apologized after a man who used a wheelchair had to climb a staircase on his hands; and a jolt of turbulence injured 10 on an international American Airlines flight, sending coffee into the overhead cabin lights. A scheduling glitch at American Airlines left thousands of flights in December without scheduled pilots.

Adrian Young, to70’s senior aviation consultant, told The Washington Post that newer technology and enhanced aircrew training have contributed to the improved safety record. Planes are crashing less often, and when they do, passengers are surviving at higher rates. Cabins are more flame resistant and are built to evacuate more effectively than in the past.

President Trump took credit for the historic safety record. He was “very strict” on commercial aviation during his first year in office, he tweeted Monday.

The credit for 2017’s safety record does not belong to one person, said John Cox, chief executive of Safety Operating Systems, an airline safety consultant group. “It was the work of thousands of people over decades. It’s not a one-year phenomenon,” Cox, a retired pilot, told The Post.

Airline regulators, manufacturers, maintenance crews, dispatch crews and others all played a role, Cox said. When asked what the most dangerous part of flying can be, Cox often says it’s driving to the airport.

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