Data of 2017 aviation safety performance of commercial airline industry was released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) that depicted strong improvements in safety.
All accident rate which is measured in accidents per 1 million flights was 1.08. The rate was an improvement over the all accident rate of 1.68 in 2016. It was much improved than the rate of 2.01 for the previous 5-year period (2012-2016).
The rate for major jet accidents measured in jet hull losses per 1 million flights in 2017 was 0.11 which equals to 1 major accident in 8.7 million flights. This rate was also an improvement over the rate of 0.39 achieved in 2016 and also better than the five-year rate (2012-2016) of 0.33.
The number of fatal accident and fatalities were 6 fatal accidents with 19 fatalities among passengers and crew. This approximately averages around 10.8 fatal accidents and approximately 315 fatalities per year in last 5 year from 2012 to 2016. None of the 6 fatal accidents involved a passenger jet. Five involved turboprop aircraft and one involved a cargo jet. The crash of the cargo jet also resulted in the deaths of 35 persons on the ground, as well as the crew of the jet.
Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO stated that year 2017 was very good year for aviation safety with some 4.1 billion travelers flying on 41.8 million flights and added that incidents and accidents of 2017 will be learnt and also from the recent tragedies in Russia and Iran to develop predictive analytics which will eventually enable to eliminate conditions leading to accidents and achieve the common goal of IATA to take-off and land safely of every flight.
