The International Business Times reports that 2006 was one of the safest years in aviation history. While there were 156 crashes resulting in 1,292 deaths, the fatality rate was 11 percent lower than in 2005, when there were 178 crashes.

The accident rate was the lowest in 53 years, although the International Civil Aviation Organization said air travel in 2006 increased by 4 percent to about 2.1 billion passengers worldwide.

Other facts:

Almost a third of all crashes last year occurred in North America, with 45 in the United States alone.

The deadliest crash was that of a Tupolev-154 in Ukraine in August in which 170 people died.

While the largest number of fatalities usually occurs when a large, jet-powered plane crashes, three-quarters of accidents last year involved smaller, propeller-powered planes.