This is true for pretty much every crash statistic.
In most cases something like accidentally bumping into the car in front of you at a stop sign at 1 MPH carries the same statistical weight as driving a bus load of passengers off the side of a cliff. Both are classified as a "crash" but they have very different outcomes.
Plane crashes are no different. Many incidents are quite minor...they bump into something on the runway while heading to the terminal or a bird flies into the engine while they are waiting for take off. Neither have a very high chance for a loss of life, but they are still the same from a statistical point of view as a wing flying off at 30k and plummeting into the middle of the Pacific.
However, even some crashes that could have and, by all probability, should have ended with a 100% fatality rate did not. This is largely due to all of the redundant systems and training that air crews get that us normal civilian drivers most likely never experience.
I am sure you remember Aloha Flight 243 where the top of the plane over first class flew off at 24k feet. The pilot landed the plan and there was only one fatality.
