There are few places more unnatural for humans to be than in the air, so plane crashes tend to resonate with a specific, emotional terror.

So far this year, there have been more than 90 safety incidents in the United States involving aircraft.

Those range from a little Bombardier corporate jet that hit a bird in Mississippi on Jan. 2 to the horrific crash that killed 67 people over the Potomac River in late January, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.

In that same time frame, though, about 1.3 million aircraft took to the skies, according to Federal Aviation Administration numbers. And that tells us that only 0.007 percent of flights encounter a problem.

We’ll forever remember the big ones, the lives lost, the horror. But in most cases, something was learned, legislated or regulated that altered air travel.

Here’s a list of 10 commercial airline crashes in America and how they changed the way we fly.

Sleep-deprived pilotsFeb. 12, 2009

The ice was thickened on the Continental Connection flight after it left Newark’s Liberty Airport and crashed outside Buffalo, killing everyone aboard the two-engine turboprop.

The 50 dead included 45 passengers, two pilots, two flight attendants and the person inside a house crushed by the plane after it went into a stall.

Families of Flight 3407 victims advocated for change — and got it.

Investigations showed it was the pilots’ lack of experience with icing conditions, their fatigue and possible misreading of safety warnings that caused Flight 3407 to go down in one of the nation’s most deadly commercial airline disasters.

Within months of the crash, under pressure from the victims’ families, Congress introduced legislation to expand pilot training requirements, and the Federal Aviation Administration enacted some of the most sweeping changes in pilot regulations in decades.

Wrong runwayAug. 27, 2006

The Delta Connection flight operated by Comair never left the ground in Lexington, Kentucky, before it ran off the end of the runway, crashed into an embankment, sheared its landing gear off on a perimeter fence, smashed into trees and caught fire, killing all 47 passengers and two crew members. One pilot survived. His brain damage was so severe that he had no memory of the crash.

Investigations showed a string of errors, beginning with pilots of Flight 5191 who began the night boarding the wrong plane. Once they were redirected to the correct aircraft, they used the wrong runway, a 3,500-foot stretch that was intended for small prop planes instead of the 7,000-foot-long one built for planes as big as the Bombardier, according to the National Transportation Safety Board official at the scene that day.

There was only one controller in the tower at the time, and his back was turned as the pilots taxied onto the smaller stretch and wondered aloud why there were no lights. The pilots were also using an outdated map.

The FAA created a list of 10 recommendations following the deadly crash to help avoid similar surface confusion and protocol in control towers. The recommendations included using better navigational maps and “cross-checking” the plane’s position before take off.

Pilot panicNov. 12, 2001

Pilot panic was the most likely reason that American Airlines Flight 587, headed to the Dominican Republic, crashed into a residential area of Queens, killing all 260 people aboard. The plane destabilized after taking off shortly behind a much larger Japan Airlines jet, struggling in its wake.

It was the pilot’s overreaction, the NTSB said, that caused the crash, calling it “too aggressive.” Investigators urged more pilot training that included frequent safety drills to make pilots more comfortable with emergency situations.

Terrorist attackSept. 11, 2001

Nearly 3,000 people were killed in four separate crashes that day as terrorists hijacked planes and crashed them in New York, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

The terrorist attack changed the way passengers fly. We have to check in an hour early, show photo ID and empty our pockets. Our luggage and our bodies are scanned. Cockpits are locked and passengers aren’t allowed to leave their seats at certain times. The attack also led to the creation of the Transportation Security Administration.

Worn-out partsJan. 30, 2001

It came down to a jack screw as thick as an ice cream cone and the soft, copper alloy of the acme nut that was supposed to be tightened around it that led to the deaths of 83 passengers and five crew members aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 261, according to NTSB investigations.

The pilots flying from Puerto Vallarta to Seattle knew something was wrong with the horizontal stabilizers and tried to divert to Los Angeles International Airport, but crashed into the Pacific Ocean before they could land.

Safety regulators insisted on massive changes in Alaska’s maintenance schedules as a result, requiring more frequent inspections for wear and tear, improvement in airplane parts design and better regulatory oversight by the FAA.

Bad wiringJuly 17, 1996

It took safety inspectors four years to conclude that a short circuit probably sparked fuel vapors, turning Trans World Airlines Flight 800 into a fireball that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New York on its way to Paris. All 230 people aboard were killed.

This was a confounding explosion because there was so little evidence left that was intact enough to provide answers. Conspiracy theories and suspicions of terrorism abounded, including rumors that it had been shot down by a missile — something that Pierre Salinger, the former press secretary for President John F. Kennedy, championed.

There was also a major outcry from the 230 families of the victims, who were frustrated by the delayed notifications by investigators. Federal officials issued 15 safety recommendations that dealt mostly with airplane construction — specifically, fuel tank and wiring issues.

Flammables in the cargo holdMay 11, 1996

Passengers began smelling smoke 10 minutes after ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 left Miami, then plunged into the Everglades, killing all 105 passengers and five crew members.

Oxygen generators the size of tennis ball cans — the very thing that should save passengers in case the cabin loses air pressure — sparked and caught fire. This is why there are regulations about what devices can go into cargo holds. The 144 cans were mislabeled as empty and the crew thought they would be safe to transport, according to the NTSB report.

Compounding the fire emergency, there were no smoke detectors in the cargo hold. A rule requiring these kinds of detectors throughout the plane was enacted after the crash.

Phantom turbulenceJuly 9, 1982

When the pilot tells you to buckle up because of turbulence ahead, it’s probably because of a wind shear, which is an abrupt change in wind speed or direction. Detecting these is crucial to airplane safety.

A sudden wind shear was not detected in New Orleans, where trees and houses were crushed after Pan American World Airways Flight 759 crashed after going no more than 100 feet into the air, killing 145 people on board and eight on the ground.

The investigation showed that there are better ways for pilots and controllers to detect wind shears, and the crash led to the implementation of Airborne Wind Shear Detection and Warning Systems on planes and at airports. That helps the pilot issue those warnings to passengers.

Flummoxed by iceJan. 13, 1982

Heroes and tragedies came out of the day when Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street Bridge and plunged into the icy Potomac River near D.C., killing 70 passengers and four crew members, as well as four people inside their cars on the bridge.

The day was snowy and stormy, and the procedures for deicing the plane were flawed. The pilots were inexperienced handling such frigid conditions, according to the NTSB reports.

The crash triggered changes in the way planes were operated under icy conditions and helped advance deicing technology.

Rogue aviatorNov. 1, 1949

The devastation in the Potomac right now eerily echoes the collision that severed Eastern Airlines Flight 537 in two as it was coming into D.C. from Boston.

The passenger jet carrying a beloved New Yorker cartoonist and a congressman had priority to land, but a P-38 military fighter that the Bolivian government was purchasing was coming in for a landing, too. The Bolivian pilot testing it out went ahead, even though the air traffic controllers told him to stay clear, according to investigation reports.

The Eastern Airlines pilot saw the P-38 heading toward him and tried to swerve but to no avail. All 55 people on board were killed. The only survivor was the Bolivian pilot, who was pulled ashore amid debris and bodies floating in the Potomac River, according to news reports.

That pilot, according to the Washington Daily News, flunked the Civil Aeronautics Aviation exams just two years earlier. He was primarily at fault, but investigations suggested better communications and vigilance by air traffic controllers, who may have been able to alert the Eastern Airlines pilot earlier.