Just How Safe is Flying Really?

It is often quoted that flying is one of the safest forms of transportation available. This is often of little comfort to me when I am soaring several thousand feet above the earth's surface and hit a patch of mild turbulence. This led me to spend the afternoon with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics to quantify just how safe it is to fly compared to other modes of transportation.

First of all I must note that commuter air travel in the US reports very low numbers of fatalities a year, averaging 2.4 deaths per year from 2000-2008. Many of those years had no fatalities reported. When commuter air travel is compared to other forms of transportation on the basis of miles traveled by passengers the added safety of flying becomes even more apparent. The results of these findings are shown as the following:

Commuter Fatalities per billion passenger miles (averaged from 2000-2008):
Air - 0.28
Auto - 14.4
Rail - 0.40

These numbers clearly indicate that one is far more likely (~50x more likely) to die on the road than in the skies. The rates between air and rail are fairly inconclusive as the calculations are based on a fair amount of assumptions that could be massaged to make one look better over the other. I don't know if knowing the numbers really helps, but hopeful you can fly with a little more peace of mind. Personally, I will probably always feel a little more comfortable the closer to the ground that I am.

Assumptions:
-average of 200 passengers were assumed per flight (passenger miles = 200 * flight miles)
-average of 200 passengers were assumed per train (passenger miles = 200 * train miles)
-only driver assumed for auto travel (passengers miles = auto vehicle miles)

References:
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics - http://www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_statistics