President Trump took credit Tuesday for commercial aviation’s remarkable safety record last year. But safety experts say the lack of fatal crashes among U.S. passenger airlines resulted from years of effort to improve technology and training.
Trump tweeted there were "Zero deaths in 2017" for "the best and safety years on record" for "commercial aviation," and that he had been "very strict" since taking office.
He was describing a safety streak that has continued since the last fatal crash of a U.S. passenger airline in February 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 killed 50 people near Buffalo.
The unblemished U.S. safety record was part of the safest year in commercial-aviation history worldwide, according to the Aviation Safety Network, a group based in the Netherlands that tracks aircraft accidents.
Ten airline accidents worldwide with 79 fatalities represented the first year with fewer than 100 deaths among records dating to 1946, according to the group. For comparison, 16 accidents killed 303 people in 2016, according to the group…
