Commercial air travel safer today, says IATA
View(s):Global aviation has seen a drastic reduction in the number of commercial aviation accidents from 414 in 2012 to 210 fatalities last year, a report released by the international aviation body, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said this week.
It was found that there was one accident for every 2.4 million flights last year, which was a step back from the previous year when the global western-built jet accident rate stood at 0.21 compared to 0.41 in 2013.
“Accidents, however rare, do happen. We release this data as the world continues to focus on the search effort for MH370. The airline industry, its stakeholders and regulators are in the beginning of the journey to unravel this mystery, understand the cause and find ways to ensure that it never happens again,” said Tony Tyler, IATA Director General and CEO.
It was recorded that more than three billion people flew safely on 36.4 million flights in 2013 but the report stated there were 81 accidents in all aircraft types up from 75 in 2012 with 20 per cent of all these accidents proving to be fatal.
Regionally safety performance saw an improvement last year from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, North Asia and Europe whereas areas with declines in safety were Asia-Pacific, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Middle East-North Africa and North America.
In an analysis carried out in the report it was found that runway safety was key since runway excursions, in which an aircraft departs a runway during landing or takeoff, are the most common type of accidents, accounting for 23 per cent of all accidents over the past five years.
In this regard, a toolkit on ensuring runway safety was produced by IATA that would ensure aviation organizations take up improvements in this area, it was noted.
Moreover, it was pointed out that in the last five years 95 per cent of accidents were due to loss of control in-flight with eight recorded last year.
Another accident concern was the Controlled-flight-into-terrain with six occurring in 2013 with most such incidents taking place during approach and landing phase of flight, it was stated.
“Safety is a team effort in which IATA, ICAO and other stakeholders are fully aligned. Using data will help us identify potential areas of concern, long before they rise to the level of a threat to safety,” said Mr. Tyler.