David Learmount/LONDON
Passenger fatalities on the world's airlines increased significantly last year compared with 1999, but the number of fatal accidents was down. The reason for the apparent disparity is that there were several serious crashes in which many people were killed, including the Air France Aerospatiale/British Aerospace Concorde tragedy, Singapore Airlines' first fatal accident, and an Alaska Air-lines loss thought to be caused by inadequate maintenance.
The figures for scheduled, charter, commuter and cargo airline operations show that 1,126 crew and passengers died in 37 fatal accidents, compared with respective figures for 1999 of 730 fatalities in 48 crashes. This appears to indicate a trend toward lower annual numbers of fatal airline accidents, and fatalities also remain on a downward trend since the 1996 peak of 1,840 deaths in 57 accidents. Since 1991, however, when there were 44 fatal accidents and 1,090 fatalities, the number of flights per year has increased by well over 30% according to International Air Transport Association figures. So the fatal accident rate per flight has reduced significantly over the decade.
One trend which appears to have become established is a greater number of loss of control accidents (four last year) related to pilot disorientation.
Source: Flight International
