You know, it’s awfully hard to opine on good news — I guess it’s not in the nature of news to be “good.”

But check this out this little nugget I found embedded in the following article from the Daily News:

America’s skies are crowded and racked with delays - but also seemingly safer, as the number of aviation fatalities last year hit a new low, statistics show.

In the largest category of general aviation - which covers all but military and scheduled airline flights - aerial accidents rose to 1,631 in 2007 from 1,518 in 2006.

But the number of deaths plunged about 30% - there were 491 fatalities last year versus 703 in 2006 - to the lowest figure in more than 40 years, the National Transportation Safety Board announced yesterday.

No deaths were reported on airline flights, according to the preliminary stats.

The total number of aviation deaths in the U.S. last year, including on foreign airlines, charters, air taxis and flying ambulances, stood at 545.

Did you catch that? No deaths from airline flights!

So American airline companies, even though we have to wait in line for 4 hours while we watch an 83 year-old woman get embarrassingly strip-searched so security can remove her rolled up tube of toothpaste, at least we’re not dying once we’ve left the ground.

I just want to say, from all of us — thanks for that.