Good News for Nervous Flyers

When boarding an airplane, I often have the completely irrational feeling that I'm just as likely to die in a fiery crash as to reach my final destination unharmed. But here are some comforting numbers: In 1997, there was 1 fatal accident for every 2 million plane departures. In 2007, there was one fatal accident for every 4.5 million departures. That's a 65 percent decline in fatal crashes over just 10 years.

Runway collisions are one of the biggest airplane safety threats today, experts say. So now you can be nervous while you're taxiing on the ground, instead of when you're up in the air.