by Michael Totten

Created on: August 24, 2010

In the 1988 movie "Rainman," the autistic savante Raymond, who has memorized airline statistics, refuses to fly on any airline except Qantas, because he says that Qantas has never had a crash. Even at that time, this was not true. No airline has a perfect safety record. Nevertheless, Qantas has never had a single fatal jet airplane crash. In fact, Qantas has had only 2 safety incidents and no fatalities whatsoever since 1951, making it among the world's safest airlines.

Other international airlines which come in at the very top of the safety list include British Virgin, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Qatar Airways, and the discount carrier Ryanair. Cathay Pacific was also Skytrax's 2009 Airline of the Year for overall excellence of air travel. Another serious competitor for safest airline is Finnair, which has had no fatalities or hull loss accidents since 1963.

For its excellent safety record alone, the Israeli carrier El Al also makes the cut, with no passenger aircraft crashes since 1951. It is additionally considered the most secure airline in the world, with passenger and baggage screening second to none and in-air security measures which include infrared countermeasures against anti-aircraft missiles. All El Al pilots are former Israeli Air Force pilots, and air marshalls are standard on every international El Al flight. However, Israel itself is considered a Category 2 country by the FAA, meaning that the FAA does not consider Israel to meet international aviation safety standards. The FAA's specific concern here is that traffic control at some of Israel's smaller airports does not meet international standards.

Singapore Airlines, which has consistently been among Skytrax's top three airlines since Skytrax started researching airline service, misses out on the very top of the safety list because of a single crash in Taipei in 2000. In heavy typhoon rains which obscured visibility, Flight 006 had accidentally turned onto a runway which had been closed for repair and collided with construction equipment while trying to take off. The closed runway had not been blocked off and was partially lighted. Although the pilot had twice confirmed with the control tower that he was on the correct runway, the airport lacked the ground radar to verify the aircraft's location, and the tower could not see the aircraft through the rain.

The charter airline Air Transat has had no accidents since it began service in 1987. In fact, in all that time, Air Transat has had only a

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