Rain Man was ahead of his time.
In the hit 1988 film, 'Rain Man,' the title character played by Dustin Hoffman is autistic albeit a genius with numbers and facts and figures. In a pivotal scene in which Hoffman and his brother (played by Tom Cruise) are supposed to catch a flight from Cincinnati to Los Angeles, Hoffman notes that Qantas is the only airline that has never had a crash.
Almost 30 years after that movie, it still hasn't.
AirlineRatings.com, the world's only safety and product rating website, has again announced its top 20 safest airlines for 2017 and, for the fourth consecutive year, Qantas tops the list from the 425 airlines it monitors.
In fact, Qantas has a fatality-free safety record in the jet era.
Making up the top 20 in alphabetical order are: Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, All Nippon Airways, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Delta Air Lines, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Hawaiian Airlines, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airline System, Singapore Airlines, Swiss, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia.
AirlineRatings.com does not numerically rank its top 20 safest airlines but instead selects one overall standout airline.
"Over its 96-year history Qantas has amassed an amazing record of firsts in safety and operations and is accepted as the world's most experienced airline," AirlineRatings.com editor Geoffrey Thomas said. "Qantas has been the lead airline in virtually every major operational safety advancement over the past 60 years."
The AirlineRatings.com editors also selected the top 10 safest low-budget carriers. In alphabetical order, they are: Aer Lingus, Flybe, HK Express, JetBlue, Jetstar Australia, Jetstar Asia, Thomas Cook, Virgin America, Vueling and Westjet.
In making its selections, AirlineRatings.com takes into account a range of factors that include audits from aviation's governing bodies and lead associations; government audits; airline's crash and serious incident record; profitability; fleet age; and also an examination of each airline's fleet history and its track record of initiating new safety technology
"Our top 20 safest airlines are always at the forefront of safety innovation, operational excellence and the launching of more advanced aircraft like the A350, 787 and 777X," Thomas said.
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