In an ironic twist of statistical interpretation, a case can be
made that 2001 turned out to be the safest year for flying since
the end of World War II. According to the Aviation Safety
Network, a Netherlands-baseddatabase, 2001 saw fewer major
airplane accidents worldwide-34-than any year since 1945, when
such statistics first were gathered. According to the ASN, the
September 11 attacks that involved four U.S. commercial
airliners are not counted as accidents, but as purposeful
crashes by terrorists. The 34 accidental crashes resulted in
1,118 deaths, significantly lower than the annual average of 50
crashes and 1,451 deaths, according to the ASN. The ASN reported
only three major airplane accidents in the United States in
2001, one of which occurred Nov. 12 when American Airlines
flight 587 crashed into a New York City suburb killing 265
people. The other two U.S. crashes-one involving a cargo plane
in Alaska, the other an air taxi in Michigan-resulted in a total
of four deaths, according to the ASN. For