Are small aircrafts still the safest air travel?

Aircraft in general are safe. It's the people who operate them that determine safety. People are ignorantly saying that small aircraft are more dangerous than automobile incidents, but that is false. However, less experienced pilots start off on small aircraft, flaunting their safety record. As pilots gain experience, they fly progressively larger aircraft.

Another misconception, sure small aircraft are vulnerable to downdrafts, but they are more agile than larger aircraft and large aircraft have crashed due to weather or downdrafts. Pretty sure there was a major crash in a US airline that did this once do to a downdraft. 

Mechanically, small aircraft and big aircraft are both safe, although larger aircrafft are more expensive to maintain.

Privately owned light planes are really NOT particularly safe. Whatever aircraft a person owns, he usually can't afford to operate. People tend to buy about one "grade" above what they can afford. Most light plane owners try to get by as cheap as possible. They find shady A&Ps that will "pencil" inspections or ignore problems. They try to DIY tasks that are beyond their skill level. Most of them don't fly enough to stay really current and capable. Next, egos and braggadocio takes over, with often fatal results. The unfortunate result is a safety level about the same as motorcycles. And every day, we see those guys splattered all over the front of cars that "didn't see them".

 I have 100s of hours in civil aircraft with only one incident and that was because of my own miscalculations and arrogance. Apparently I'm NOT the best pilot in the World - LOL!!

 I have flown commercially over 40 times and have been in two incidents that could have resulted in a complete airframe loss. One was pilot error and the other was a catastrophic mechanical failure on landing.

Hot air balloons the safest? Only 16 people died in ten years, may be low in absolute numbers but I’m sure it’s huge in passenger miles travelled. ( very few people fly in balloons and fly very short distances).

No small aircraft are bit very safe, it’s not much more difficult to get a licence than for a car. Commercial air lines and trains are the safest transport.

Hot air balloon deaths

2013 19 people in one accident

2016 16 people in one accident.

Beg to differ, actually trains remain the safest way to travel.

As for flight, I think hot air balloons are actually the safest form of air travel. From 2002 to 2012 only 16 people died from flying in hot air balloons. Which is very low when compared to even a tricycle (about 5 yearly often the deaths are associated with riding near a swimming pool and drowning as the final cause of death).

Large aircraft are  the safest form of travel  ever invented.  Small aircraft are slightly less safe than automobiles, about the same as motorcycles.

"Still"?

They never were. Airliners have always been the safest form of air travel, and the safest form of ANY travel.

THEY NEVER WERE. LARGE, JET AIRCRAFT ARE THE SAFEST FORM OF AIR TRAVEL. 

Large aircraft are safe, but small ones are often flown by people with questionable airmanship, and lack the redundancy of airliners.

No.  In fact small aircraft are the most dangerous form of air travel.  Look at Steve Fossett,  a very experienced pilot yet he died in a small plane when he got caught in a down draft his plane could not handle.    Most small plane pilots do not have a quarter of his experience.