Just when it seemed we needed some good news about air travel, any good news, the numbers have come out from the National Transportation Safety Board. You might have gotten the impression from the recent crack down on safety inspections that planes must be falling from the skies, but such is not the case.

No one died during 2007 in accidents among larger scheduled U.S. airlines and smaller commuter aircraft, and deaths in private plane accidents dropped to 491, their lowest total in more than 40 years, the government reported Wednesday.

But on-demand aircraft - charters, air taxis and tours, and medical flights with a patient aboard _ saw accident deaths jump from 16 in 2006 to 43 in 2007, according to preliminary annual figures from the National Transportation Safety Board.