Just how safe is it to fly?

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was not the first plane to be shot out of Ukraine's skies. The countrys civil unrest between pro-Russian and pro-Ukraine forces has caused many more this month alone. The WSJs Ramy Inocencio reports.

The arrival of the first bodies of flight MH17 to Netherlands. Source: News Corp Australia

WITH three fatal aviation disasters in just seven days, you can't blame people for asking the question: Just how safe is it to fly?

The number of lives lost in our skies this year has reached a staggering 719 after all the 116 people on board the Air Algerie plane that crashed in Mali overnight perished.

This is well above the annual global average of 517, calculated over the past five years.

The Air Algerie plane came down in a rainstorm just a day after TransAsia Airways flight GE222 crashed in Taiwan, killing 48 people, and a week after 298 people lost their lives on the downed Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane.

There were two other plane tragedies this year, with 239 people killed on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and 18 fatalities on Nepal Airlines flight RA-183.

So how does this compare to previous years?

More than three billion passengers travelled on 36 million flights last year, according to the aviation safety body International Air Transport Association (IATA). There were 81 accidents resulting in 210 deaths overall.

It was a much safer year compared to 2012 where there was 414 deaths recorded, 490 in 2011, 786 in 2010 and 685 in 2009.

The worst year in the history of air travel was 1972, when more than 2300 people died, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

The MH17 crash scene. Source: Getty Images

IATA spokesman Albert Tjoeng told news.com.au that the aviation industry would seek to learn from the tragedies: "Our heart goes out to the passengers and crew of MH17 and GE222. Every accident and every life lost is one too many, and the industry is determined to continuously improve our safety performance."

Australian aviation accident investigator Geoff Dell, a former safety manager for Qantas, said the industry must adapt.

"Some of the aviation disasters that have happened this year are repeats of earlier failures," he said.

"For example, with MH17, it's not the first time airliners have been shot down by accident and probably won't be the last.

The tail section of TransAsia Airways flight GE222. Source: AFP

"The industry needs to respond to these aviation disasters and take action to prevent occurrences, and there's already evidence they're doing that with the fact many airlines have pulled out of Tel Aviv (as conflict escalates in the region). By and large it's all about managing risk."

Mr Dell said it was important to remember just how safe it was to fly.

"If you compare the likelihood of being in a car accident you're much less likely to be involved in one of these (aviation) events. Millions of flights are operated safety."

He said even if overall aviation standards remained the same, there would be more accidents simply because more people are flying.