Today it´s Friday, the 13th – the date usually considered a bad luck day in the Western culture, following the old superstition born someday back in the Middle Ages. This unsubstantiated fear is so strong, that it even has its own scientific term, paraskevidekatriaphobia.
There are many people who are so afraid of Friday 13th that usually skip their everyday routine on that day, as well as try to avoid any significant actions in their lives, such as travelling. What´s more, flying in an aeroplane on Friday 13th is, in general opinion, one of the riskiest activities to be performed on that day.
Should this fear be taken seriously? Is there any evidence that fear of flying on Friday 13th is somehow scientifically justified?
We have checked some aviation related web sites, especially the Aviation Safety Network page, as well as other available sources, including Wikipedia, to get, in conclusion, the register of fatal aviation accidents which occurred on that very day since 1945. And this list includes, as below (date/aircraft type/operator/location/fatalities):
– 13 June 1947, DC-4 of Pennsylvania-Central Airlines (USA) with 50 people, all crew and passengers, killed in the crash;
– 13 October 1950, DC-3 of Air Atlas (Morocco), 4 killed and 3 survivors;
– 13 March 1959, Bristol 170 of Aviaco (Spain), 1 killed, 17 survivors;
– 13 October 1972, Fairchild FH-227D of the Uruguayan Air Force (Andes) – the worldwide known accident of an aeroplane carrying the Uruguayan rugby team, killing 31 people; the survivors were found after two months;
– 13 October 1972 (the same day as above), Ilyushin Il-62 of Aeroflot (Russia) – the aeroplane crashed on approach to Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, killing all 174 on board; at that time, it was the deadliest Soviet aircraft accident and today remains the second deadliest in Russia;
– 13 October 1978, DHC-6 Twin Otter (Alaska), 1 killed;
– 13 December 1985, Britten-Norman BN-2A Islander of Aviones de Panama (Panama), killing all 7 on board;
– 13 December 2002, Britten-Norman BN-2A Islander of Island Airways (Papua New Guinea), killing all 7 on board;
– 13 August 2004, Convair CV-580 of Air Tahoma (USA), 1 killed and 1 survived (cargo flight, no more people on board);
– 13 July 2012, Gulfstream G-IV of Universal Jet Aviation (France), killing all 3 people on board;
– 13 March 2020, Cessna 525 Citation Jet (Venezuela), killing all 2 people on board.
At first glance, this list may look scary enough to quit flying on Friday 13th but… The statistical analysis from Aviation Safety Network web site, taking into consideration all information from the ASN database regarding all known fatal airliner accidents, is proving exactly the contrary. Since 1st January 1945 and until 13th September 2013 there were 2288 fatal aviation accidents, which makes the 0,091 average of fatal accident per day.
And if we compare this with the average for Friday, the 13th, the fatal accident rate for the ´most unlucky day in the calendar´ is just 0,067. And that makes the feared day even a less fatal than the average day of the year.
And that how much the fear of Friday, the 13th is rooted in the Western culture, is indicated by the fact that if we asked the AI image generator to create an illustration of airline flight on that day, the results were full of dramatic images, full of disasters and supernatural weather phenomena. Just exactly as the picture above.
It is worth to mention that there is also a popular rumour, saying that airline tickets are significantly cheaper for flights on Friday, the 13th. Regrettably, this is just another urban legend.
Speaking of Friday, the 13th in aviation, one should not forget about Finnair, which, for many years, operated the flight AY666 from Copenhagen to Helsinki. In the aviation world commonly recognized as #666 flight to HEL.
On the last day of scheduled operation of Finnair on the abovementioned route – which was exactly Friday, 13th October 2017 – the flight AY666 was performed by Airbus A320 which took-off from Copenhagen at 1300 hours and arrived at Helsinki, gate 26 (being the double 13).
During the eleven years of operation, Finnair performed the #666 flight to HEL exactly on Friday, the 13th, no less than twenty-one times. All of them, were successfully completed without any significant issues.
Sources: information and statistics from Aviation Safety Network web site, Wikipedia, Finnair and Helsinki airport official profiles on X (formerly Twitter).
Cover photo: Airbus A320 of the Finnair company (illustrative photo)
