IATA Declares Low Accident Rate

The International Air Transport Association (IATA)  says the accident rate for Western-built jets was the lowest in aviation history, surpassing the previous record in 2010.

The world body said that the 2011 global accident rate measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built jets was 0.37, the equivalent of one accident every 2.7 million flights.

This, it said represented a 39 per cent improvement compared  to 2010, when the accident rate was 0.61, or one accident for every 1.6 million flights.

A hull loss is an accident in which the aircraft is destroyed or substantially damaged and not subsequently repaired for whatever reason, including a financial decision by the owner.

“Safety is the air transport industry’s number one priority. It is also a team effort. The entire stakeholder community-airlines, airports, air navigation service providers and safety regulators-works together every day to make the skies safer based on global standards. As a result, flying is one of the safest things that a person could do. But, every accident is one too many and each fatality is a human tragedy. The ultimate goal of zero accidents keeps everyone involved in aviation focused on building an ever safer industry,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’S Director-General and CEO.

IATA reported that 2.8 billion people flew safely on 38 million flights (30 million by jet, 8 million by turboprop), 11 hull loss accidents involving Western-built jets compared to 17 in 2010 and 92  total accidents (all aircraft types, Eastern and Western built) down from 94 in 2010.

Also five fatal hull loss accidents involving Western-built jets down 8 in 2010, 22 fatal accidents (all aircraft types) against 23 in 2010, 486 fatalities compared to 786 in 2010 and fatality rate dropped to 0.07 per million passengers from 0.21 in 2010 based on Western-built jet operations.