Number of airline accidents down in 2009, but death-toll up

The number of airline-related accidents dropped by about 20% worldwide in 2009, but there was an increase in the death-roll owing to a few crashes with high rates of casualty.

A report by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said that a total of 685 persons lost their lives in 90 air accidents in 2009, compared to 109 accidents in 2008, in which persons died.

There occurred 18 fatal airline accidents in 2009, compared to 23 fatal airline accidents in 2008, according to the International Air Transport Association, which represents 230 airlines that comprise 93% of scheduled international air traffic.

In 2009, 2.3 billion people could fly safely, Giovanni Bisignani, director-general of the International Air Transport Association said in the report, adding that “every fatality is a human tragedy” which “reminds us of the ultimate goal of zero-accidents as also zero-fatalities.”

The major airline accident rate for 2009 (0.7 accidents per one million flights) was the second lowest ever, and was over a third lower than the rate 10 years ago. This rate is based on jet aircraft built in the West, which were destroyed, considerably damaged or written off as losses by airlines.

Though figures for total accidents and deaths, provided by the International Air Transport Association, are based on all types of aircraft – both built in the West and in the East – the accident rate has been based only on aircraft made in the West and also excludes smaller turboprops planes and aircraft made in Russia.

In all, 19% of the accidents in 2009 involved jet aircraft built in the West, compared to 22% in 2008.

‘Runway excursions’ (mainly problems occurring during takeoff and landing) have been blamed for over one-fourth of all accidents in 2009.

Most of the airline-related deaths that occurred in 2009 were caused by the following 3 major accidents:

The Air France Flight 447, on its way from Brazil to France with 228 people on board, disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009.

An Airbus A310 aircraft of Yemenia Airways crashed into the Indian Ocean, off the Comoros Islands, on June 30, 2009, in which all 152 people aboard died. Only one person, a 12-year-old girl, who clung to the debris for 13 hours, survived.

A Russian-made jet bound for Armenia crashed in north-west Iran soon after taking off from Tehran, the capital of Iran, on July 15, 2009. All 168 people aboard died.

According to the International Air Transport Association, the annual death-roll fluctuated over the last decade – with the highest in 2005, when 1,035 persons lost their lives in airline accidents.

According to Jim Burin, director of technical programmes at the Flight Safety Foundation, a global aviation safety group based in Alexandria, Virginia, the United States, the best news is that the present rate of airline accidents is only around  half of the rate in the 1990s, which is partly because of advancements in technology.