These are the world's 10 safest airlines — and the 4 least safe — for 2015

The website Airline Ratings released a list of the top safest and the least safe airlines for 2015. The rankings are based on government audits, fatality records, incident records and operational history.

BOBBY YIP/REUTERS The Airline Ratings website recently released a report of the top 10 safest airlines for 2015. The safety and product review website also rated the four least safe airlines based on fatality records, incident records and government audits.

With 21 fatal accidents and 986 fatalities, 2014 was a bad year in airline safety, according to Airline Ratings.
The airline safety and product review website AirlineRatings.com recently released a report of the top 10 safest airlines for 2015. The report also listed the four least safe airlines.
Airline Ratings reviewed 449 airlines in its report and rated them on a seven-star scale. The scale system was based on government audits, fatality records, incident records and operational history.
The top 10 airlines were all part of the 149 airlines that received a seven-star rating. However, the Australian airline Qantas was once again the rated the No. 1 airline for again maintaining a fatality-free record and being a leader in innovation.
World's safest airlines (alphabetical order):

• Air New Zealand
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific Airways
• Emirates
• Etihad Airways
• EVA Air
• Finnair
• Lufthansa Airlines
• Qantas
• Singapore Airlines

The four least safe airlines all received one star on the rating scale. These four airlines were part of the 50 that received three stars or less.
World's least safe airlines (alphabetical order):

• Kam Air
• Nepal Airlines
• Scat Air
• Tara Air

Airline Ratings does not consider fatal accidents if the airline was a victim of an act of terrorism or if the airline suffered a fatal accident through no fault of its own. The Malaysia Airlines tragedies would be an example. Flight MH17 was shot down by Ukraine rebels and Flight MH370 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. Malaysia Airlines had a total of 537 fatalities total with those two tragedies, which are part of the 986 fatalities Airlines Ratings mentioned in their report.