There were 22 accidents involving passenger fatalities on scheduled airlines in 1998 according to figures released by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). This compares with 27 fatal accidents in the same category during 1997.
Passenger fatalities last year were 909, against 930 in 1997, but ICAO points out there was "no significant change in passenger fatalities per 100 million passenger kilometres", which remained at 0.035.
For non-scheduled airlines in 1998 the number of fatal accidents was 33, resulting in 282 passenger fatalities, compared with figures for 1997 of 297 fatalities in 31 accidents. During the previous 10 years (1987-1996), ICAO's fatal accident numbers for scheduled flights have varied between a minimum of 23 (1996) and a maximum of 30 (1991), with a fatalities minimum of 495 (1990) and a maximum of 1,135 (1996).
ICAO reports six occurrences of "unlawful interference" last year, but no casualties, whereas in 1997 the same number of occurrences took place but one "perpetrator" was killed.
Source: Flight International
