• We understated the death rate from illness in the text box entitled “In-flight emergencies” (31 August, p 11). A death rate from illness of one death per 2.4 to 7.5 billion passenger kilometres corresponds to an annual death toll of between 440 and 1380.
• In “Fires from hell”, we wrote that the annual consumption of coal in underground fires in China is around 100 million tonnes (31 August, p 34). This is less than the 1 billion tonnes that China burns deliberately, not more as we stated.
