Twice as many people have been killed in airline accidents during 2005 than last year while the number of fatal crashes is up by around 20%.
Provisional data compiled for Flight International’s annual airline safety review shows that two days before the end of 2005 there have been 34 fatal accidents, compared with 28 in the whole of 2004, and the number of fatalities is 1,050 compared with only 466 last year.
African airlines had another bad year, suffering 12 fatal accidents, with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Sudan all seeing multiple accidents. There were no fatal accidents involving any of the world’s major airlines.
Comparison with longer-term trend data shown in the magazine’s last full-year airline safety review (to 31 December 2004, see Flight International, 25-31 January 2005) reveals that the higher figures do not so much indicate a reversal of the steady trend toward better airline safety, but rather a levelling-out. Figures last year for both fatal accidents and fatalities remained below the annual averages for the decade to 2004.
There will be a full analysis of world airline safety in the 17 January issue of Flight International.
DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON
Source: Flight International
