The year of 2014 is the lowest airline fatal accident rate in history

The year of 2014 has turned out to be the best year ever for airline safety, according to Ascend. This may seem an unexpected result, given the high-profile losses of two Malaysia Airlines 777-200s and crash of Indonesia AirAsia A320 crash last week.

Paul Hayes, the director of air safety and insurance at Ascend, says that the global airline fatal accident rate in 2014 was one fatal accident per 2.38 million flights. This means that the basis of 2014 was narrowly, the safest year ever.

The figures exclude the loss of MH17 on the reports that it was shot down by a missile and is considered a war risk loss, and not an accident. Although doubts exist about the whereabouts of MH370, that incident has been included in the fatal accident rates.

The last "safest year" was 2012, with a fatal accident rate of one per 2.37 million flights.

The fatal accident rate for 2013 was one per 1.91 million flights.

The fatal rate for 2011 was one per 1.4 million and in 2010 was one per 1.26 million.

The average for the last five years is now about one per 1.75 million flights.

9M-MRO, the aircraft used for flight MH370 that still has not been found.