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IATA report reveals safety improvement

Ben Vogel - IHS Jane's Airport Review


Police officers examine remains of the fuselage of Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 in Jakarta on 2 March 2015. Despite this and other high-profile accidents in 2014, the latest IATA annual report indicates an overall improvement in air transport safety. Source: PA
The latest annual survey from IATA found that commercial aviation safety improved in 2014, despite high-profile losses of two Malaysia Airlines aircraft (Flight MH370 in March and Flight MH17 in July) and the Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 crash in December.
Hull losses (destruction of an aircraft or damage beyond repair) reached a historic low in 2014, with one accident per 4.4 million flights. Among IATA member airlines, the hull loss rate was one per 8.3 million flights.
"Any accident is one too many and safety is always aviation's top priority," said Tony Tyler, IATA director general and CEO. "While aviation safety was in the headlines in 2014, the data shows that flying continues to improve its safety performance."
There were 73 accidents in 2014, down from the 81 recorded in 2013. The 12 fatal accidents across all aircraft types do not include the destruction by surface-to-air missile of MH17 over Ukraine (as it is not classified as an accident).
Jet aircraft were involved in seven hull losses in 2014, compared to 12 in 2013 and an annual average of 16 in the period 2009-13. The fatal hull loss rate for jets halved from six in 2013 to three in 2014.
Aircraft safety performance, 2014
Description20142009-13 annual avge
Hull loss rate*0.230.58
Total accidents7381
Fatal accidents1219
Fatalities641517
*Per million flights
Source: IATA, March 2015
"All regions but one showed improvement in 2014 when compared to 2013," IATA found. "The exception is Europe which maintained the rate of 0.15 jet hull losses per 1 million operations." Airlines in sub-Saharan Africa had a spotless record in 2014, while the 0.83 jet hull loss rate for airlines in the former Soviet Union marked major progress on the 2009-13 average annual rate of 2.74.
There were 17 hull loss accidents involving turboprops of which nine were fatal. However, the world turboprop hull loss rate improved to 2.30 per million flights in 2014 compared to 2.78 in 2009-13. Africa had the worst regional performance for turboprop safety, although North America also deteriorated in 2014 (1.19 losses) compared with the previous five years (an average of 1.02).

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