kontiki wrote:

Flying is safer (per passenger mile) than traveling in cars, trains
and yes, even boats. The reason it has that record is in part because
the requirement are more stringent.

That is not what the statistics say, assuming you were talking about
general aviation, which was the main part of discussion in this thread
up to now. The following from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics:

(fatalities per 100 million passenger-miles - year 2001)

3.62 General Aviation (Includes all types of GA)
3.05 Motorcycle riders
0.79 Automobile occupants (Pedestrian fatalities not included.)
0.02 Passengers on trains (Grade crossing, trespassing fatalities not
included.)
0.02 Scheduled air carriers (2000 data used to avoid 9/11 fatality
count.)

As far as boats are concerned, it would depend on what segment of the
industry one wanted to compare, and what passenger-miles would be used.

In the case of cruise ships, there have been no fatalities in at least
the last decade from a casualty. There have been a number of people
falling overboard, plus people who simply succumb to natural causes.
Ferryboats also have a very low passenger fatality rate, and therefore
would fare well in a comparison.

Recreational boating is another story, with 681 fatalities reported in
2001, (GA had 562 fatalities, for comparison) but passenger-miles aren't
reported for recreational boats. (There are 60 times as many boats as
there are GA aircraft -- about 211,500 active general aviation aircraft,
and 12.9 million recreational boats -- if that helps people with a
perspective.)