Donald Trump claims credit for no commercial jet deaths in 2017

Donald Trump has appeared to claim credit for the fact that 2017 was the safest year on record for flying on commercial airlines.  The US president indicated in a back-to-work tweet that his policies – which included a laptop ban from certain Muslim-majority countries – may have contributed. 

Last year not a single person died from a commercial jet aircraft crash – a first in the 60 years since it became a regular form of transport. 

Mr Trump tweeted: “Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!”

While it is unclear what he was referring to, the US president introduced a string of measures aimed at improving border security in his first year in office. 

Passengers from 10 Muslim-majority countries were banned from carrying laptop computers, iPads and other larger electronic devices in early 2017.

The move came after intelligence indicated that the extremist group Isil was developing a bomb to hide in portable electronic devises. The ban was later scaled back. 

Mr Trump has also been battling to introduce a ban on people travelling to America from seven Muslim-majority countries, which has been repeatedly knocked down in the courts and reworded. 

The seven countries initially targeted were Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Somalia. A watered down version of the ban came into effect in December. 

Reports from the Dutch consultancy To70 and the Aviation Safety Network found there were no passenger jets crashes anywhere in the world in 2017. 

In 2005, there were more than 1,000 deaths on-board commercial passenger flights worldwide. The last passenger jet airliner crash was in November 2016 in Colombia. 

There were fatal airplane accidents in 2017, but they involved cargo planes or smaller propeller-driven passenger aircraft. In total, 44 passengers died in 10 such crashes in 2017.