NEW DELHI: The accident rate of Western-built jets in 2011 was at the lowest in aviation history, according to an analysis by the International Air Transporters’ Association (IATA).
The 2011 global accident rate was one accident in every 2.7 million flights. This represented a 39 per cent improvement compared to 2010, when the accident rate was one for every 1.6 million flights.
“The ultimate goal of zero accidents keeps everyone involved in aviation focused on building an ever-safer industry,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO.
In all, 2.8 billion people flew safely on 38 million flights across the world and 22 fatal accidents took place in 2011 as compared to 23 in 2010. “The accident rate for airlines on the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registry was 52 per cent, better than non-IOSA operators. These numbers show that IOSA is helping to drive safety improvements for the entire industry, not just IATA-member airlines.”
Of the 369 airlines on the IOSA registry, 130, or 35 per cent of the total, are non-IATA member airlines,” Tyler said.
Runway excursions, in which an aircraft departs a runway during a landing or takeoff, were the most common type of accident in 2011 (18 per cent of the total accidents).
In all, 88 per cent of runway excursions occurred during landing.
Unstable approaches -- situations where the aircraft is too fast, above the glide slope, or touches down beyond the desired touchdown point -- and contaminated runways are among the most common contributing factors to runway excursions on landing.
Ground damage was another concern, accounting for 16 per cent of accidents in 2011. This was up from 11 per cent in 2010. These accidents include events such as damage resulting from ground handling operations and collisions during taxi.