Which is the most deadly aircraft to fly aboard?

A man walks past a piece of the crashed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 near the village of Hrabove, eastern Ukraine Monday, July 21, 2014. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky) Photo: (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)

More than 400 people have been killed in airline tragedies this summer, sparking many to wonder if airlines are a safe way to travel anymore. Spoiler alert: They are.

But the history of aviation safety is far more complicated than that. Between 1945 and 2014, there have been more than 15,000 aviation accidents.

While a solid number of those were the result military conflict in the Second World War, Vietnam, Korea and countless others, passenger aircraft make up more than a third. And because of their high capacity compared to military aircraft, their accidents result in more fatalities.

The United States Air Force and Army Air Force have, by far, the most crashes at more than 1,500. They are followed by the Royal Air Force and the United States Navy.

Air France has the most accidents recorded for a commercial civilian airliner at 108. By comparison, Air Canada has 17 and Air Canada Jazz 1. The vast majority of air carriers around the world have only one or two accidents recorded, a good sign that aviation remains safe.

You can browse through the world’s accidents by airliner in our custom interactive (the list is long, but includes major players like Air Canada and the United States Air Force). Click on each incident to reveal more details and a link to the full accident report. All data is passenger fatalities only.

Military aircraft make up a huge number of crashes for obvious reasons. But since 1945 their overall proportion of fatalities has been extremely low. In 1945, 1,465 people died in military air crashes. Only 265 people died in other accidents. Compare that to 2013 where only 26 peopled died in military air crashes, compared with 329 in all other incidents.

1945 is the only time in the past 69 years that military fatalities have outnumbered civilian.

You can also browse every crash since 1945 by year with our interactive tool.

The most crash-prone aircraft in the database in the Antonov 2r, a small biplane made in Russia that is commonly used for farming. But it’s tied with the De Havilland Canada DHC-6 for number of crashes. Both sit at 206.

The Douglas DC-3, a WWII aircraft, sits in third place with 169 incidents reported. In fourth place is Boeing’s 727 aircraft with 132.

But most of those accidents result in few or zero deaths. The aircraft are largely well designed and able to handle emergency situations well.

The most deadly aircraft in the database is the Tupolev 154M. The aircraft is a Russian passenger aircraft that dates from the Soviet era and has been involved in more than 1,400 deaths across more than 100 crashes. A Soviet aircraft also holds the second place for most deadly: The Ilyushin 18V, at 1,357 deaths. The North American McDonnell Douglas DC-9 takes third place with 1,242 and the fourth place is the first military aircraft entrance, the C-130 Hercules with 1,233 fatalities.