Air safety

1. In terms of fatalities, 2014 was the worst year in the history of civil aviation. Some 970 people died in plane crashes.

2. The three accidents with the highest number of fatalities were connected to two airlines based in Malaysia.

3. However, more than 3.3 billion people flew safely in 2014, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). That represents 170 million more tickets sold than in 2013.

4. The highest number of civilian aviation fatalities on or over German territory in the last 40 years was in 2002, when 118 people died.

5. The lowest number of fatalities on German territory was in 2004 with 23 deaths.

6. Europe's biggest airplane disaster happened on the ground at Spain's Tenerife airport on March 27, 1977. A KLM flight tried to take off while a Pan Am flight was still on the runway. The collision killed 583 people.

7. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 is considered to be one of the most tragic flight disasters in recent memory. The flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed after supposedly being shot down over a war zone in East Ukraine. Many children were among the 298 dead.

8. Large airlines are seldom involved in fatal accidents. Regional carriers with smaller planes have a higher accident rate. Most of these are based outside of Europe and the Americas.

9. Civil aviation is a growing market. IATA estimates that in 20 years, around 7.3 billion people will travel by plane annually. That's double the number seen in 2014.

10. "If you were to take a flight every day, the odds are that you would fly 14,000 years without an accident.” (IATA)