IATA Reports 50 Percent Drop in Air Fatalities Since 1998

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released its 44th annual Safety Report, which shows that the 2007 global accident rate of 0.75 hull losses for every million flights by Western-built jet aircraft was slightly higher than the 0.65 rate recorded in 2006.

This was largely the result of tragic accidents in Africa, Indonesia and to some extent Brazil. IATA member airlines performed better than the industry average with an accident rate of 0.68 hull losses per million flights.

The number of global fatalities declined 19 percent from 855 to 692, even as passenger numbers increased by 6 percent to over 2.2 billion passengers in 2007. In absolute numbers, there were 100 accidents in 2007 (57 jet, 43 turboprop) compared with 77 accidents in 2006 (46 jet, 31 turboprop).

Regional accidents rates varied. Russia and the CIS had zero accidents in 2007, following a disastrous year in 2006. At 0.09 and 0.29 accidents per million flights, North America and Europe had hull-loss rates significantly better than the global average. A spate of accidents in Indonesia pushed the Asia Pacific accident rate to 2.76 hull losses per million flights.

Latin American accident rate was 1.61 hull losses per million flights. IATA is working with the Brazilian government on a comprehensive program to improve safety -- from IOSA to infrastructure improvements. Almost half (48 percent) of the year’s accidents took place during landing.

The majority of these accidents involved a runway excursion. Many of these accidents could have been prevented by the initiation of a timely go-around. Almost half of the accidents in 2007 were linked to a technical issue; maintenance events contributed to almost 20 percent of all occurrences last year. Africa had the worst record at 4.09 hull-losses per million flights.