Murray writes: statistics does show that flying is unquestionably the safest mode of transport

That can be and has been questioned often in the risk assessment literature. It depends upon the definition of 'safety'. You may be surprised that there are more than one definition but there are. Among several statistics used are 'deaths per distance', 'deaths per time', and 'deaths per use'. Flying is the safest if you use 'deaths per distance' as a measure (flight lines do that, of course). Flying is far from being the safest if you use other less often cited definitions.

I once did a calculation just for the fun of it and for instructional purposes when Challenger exploded. I calculated the safety of American space shuttle flights by using the definition of safety airlines use, namely deaths per distance. Flying space shuttle was about as safe as driving a car in Germany at that time. So why did the NASA stop flights for some time and did reconsider safety? Because they used another statistic, namely 'deaths per use' and in that statistic space shuttle flights were extremely unsafe.

I do not want to say that one of these measures is better than the other. Each of them has its place under the appropriate circumstances. But to say that flying is unquestionably the safest is not correct.

For those of you who are scared of flying, I can only offer you a good rational reason for your fears. The safety statistics from the airlines, 'deaths per distance' are thought to compares different means of transport over long distances and are fine in that context. Your personal fears do not compare one intercontinental flight with the next twenty years of cycling near your home (in order to come to the same overall distance). You are bothered by the question 'will I come out here safe after boarding', so you are interested in the statistics of 'deaths per use'. And in that statistic, deaths per use, air travel is by far not the safest. Same for the 'deaths per time' statistic by the way: Your probability to die within the next hour of travel is higher in air travel than it is in long distance car travel. No wonder your level of fear is higher.

Wolfgang