Data for the 2017 safety performance of the commercial airline industry shows the all accident rate (measured in accidents per one million flights) was 1.08, an improvement over the all accident rate of 1.68 in 2016 and the rate of 2.01 for the previous 5-year period (2012-2016).
Flying is becoming safer – and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has the figures to back it up.
Data for the 2017 safety performance of the commercial airline industry shows the all accident rate (measured in accidents per one million flights) was 1.08, an improvement over the all accident rate of 1.68 in 2016 and the rate of 2.01 for the previous 5-year period (2012-2016).
The 2017 rate for major jet accidents (measured in jet hull losses per 1 million flights) was 0.11, which was the equivalent of one major accident for every 8.7 million flights. This was an improvement over the rate of 0.39 achieved in 2016 and also better than the five-year rate (2012-2016) of 0.33.
There were six fatal accidents with 19 fatalities among passengers and crew. This compares with an average of 10.8 fatal accidents and approximately 315 fatalities per year in the previous five-year period (2012-2016). In 2016 there were nine fatal accidents and 202 fatalities.
None of the six 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.
IATA member airlines experienced zero fatal accidents or hull losses in 2017 with jet or turboprop equipment.
"2017 was a very good year for aviation safety,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
“Some 4.1 billion travellers flew safely on 41.8 million flights. We saw improvements in nearly all key metrics—globally and in most regions.
“In 2017 there were incidents and accidents that we will learn from through the investigation process, just as we will learn from the recent tragedies in Russia and Iran.”