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News
Aircraft Accident
Rate Drops In 2009
- Renewed Focus on
Training, Data -
Montreal - The International Air Transport Association
(IATA) announced the aviation safety performance for 2009 showing that
the year’s accident rate for Western-built jet aircraft as the second
lowest in aviation history.
The 2009 global accident rate (measured in hull losses per
million flights of Western-built jet aircraft) was 0.71. That is equal to
one accident for every 1.4 million flights. This is a significant
improvement of the 0.81 rate recorded in 2008 (one accident for 1.2
million flights). The 2009 rate was the second lowest in aviation
history, just above the 2006 rate of 0.65. Compared to 10 years ago, the
accident rate has been cut 36% from the rate recorded in 2000.
In absolute numbers, 2009 saw the following results
- 2.3 billion
people flew safely on 35 million flights (27 million jet, 8 million
turboprop)
- 19
accidents involving western built jet aircraft compared to 22 in
2008
- 90
accidents (all aircraft types, Eastern and Western built) compared
to 109 in 2008
- 18 fatal
accidents (all aircraft types) compared to 23 in 2008
- 685
fatalities compared to 502 in 2008
“Safety is the industry’s number one priority. Even in a
decade during which airlines lost an average of US$5 billion per year, we
still managed to improve our safety record. Last year, 2.3 billion people
flew safely. But every fatality is a human tragedy that reminds us of the
ultimate goal of zero accidents and zero fatalities,” said Giovanni
Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
IATA member airlines outperformed
the industry average with a Western-built jet hull accident rate of 0.62.
That rate is equal to one accident for every 1.6 million flights. “In
2009 IATA marked an important milestone in aviation safety. From April 1,
all IATA members were on the registry of the IATA Operational Safety
Audit—a testimony to our commitment to the highest global standards for
operational safety. IOSA is the global standard. Today 332 carriers are
on the registry, including IATA’s 231 members,” said Bisignani.
There are significant regional differences in the accident
rate.
- North Asia,
Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS) had zero western-built jet hull
losses in 2009
- North
America (0.41) and Europe (0.45) performed better
than the global average of 0.71
- Asia-Pacific’s
accident
rate worsened to 0.86 in 2009 (compared to 0.58 in 2008) with three
accidents involving carriers from the region.
- The Middle
East and North Africa region saw its accident rate rise
to 3.32 (compared to 1.89 in 2008) with four accidents involving
carriers from the region.
- Africa had an
accident rate of 9.94, significantly higher than their 2008 rate of
2.12. Africa has once again the worst rate of the world. There
were five Western-built jet hull losses with African carriers in
2009. African carriers are 2% of global traffic, but 26% of global
western-built jet hull losses.
An analysis of the causes of the 2009 accidents focuses on
three main areas:
- Runway
excursions continue to be a challenge and accounted for 26% of all
accidents in 2009. However, the total number
of runway excursions dropped by 18% (23 vs 28 in 2008). IATA
released its Runway Excursion Risk Reduction Toolkit in 2009, with
an updated version to be produced later this year. The toolkit is
incorporated with IATA’s broad ranging safety data tools in the IATA
Global Safety Information Center (GSIC), a customizable website
which will enable users to extract relevant safety information
through a single application and enable them to perform performance
benchmark and conduct trend analysis and risk management.
- Ground
damage accounted for 10% of all accidents in 2009. To
improve safety and reduce this US$4 billion annual industry cost,
IATA introduced the IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operations (ISAGO).
Built on similar principles to IOSA, ISAGO is the industry’s first
global standard for the oversight and auditing of ground handling
companies. The first audits took place in 2008. To date a total of
149 audits have been conducted.
- While
runway excursions and ground damage were the main categories of
accidents, pilot handling was noted as a contributing factor in 30%
of all accidents. IATA’s Training &
Qualification Initiative (ITQI) is pushing for harmonizing a
competency-based approach focused on training real skills while
addressing threats presented by accident/incident reports and flight
data collection and reporting. IATA will also work through ICAO to
develop a Fatigue Risk Management System as part of the Safety
Management System. This will be a new process to systematically
manage crew fatigue taking into account changes in aircraft
capabilities and airline operations.
These initiatives are consistent with IATA’s comprehensive
Six-point Safety Program which focuses on infrastructure safety, safety
data management and analysis, operations, Safety Management Systems,
maintenance and auditing.
“Safety is a constant challenge. Having made aviation the
safest way to travel, further improvements will come only with careful
data analysis. We must understand the underlying safety risk trends, not
just from the handful of accidents each year, but by bringing together
and analyzing data from millions of safe flights. The IATA Global Safety
Information Center was launched in December 2009 for just that purpose.
Going forward our goal is to work with other organizations and
governments involved in aviation safety to add to the database and drive
even more improvements,” Said Bisignani.
View 2009 Aviation Safety Performance
(pdf)
- IATA -
For more information, please contact:
Anthony Concil
Director Corporate Communications
Tel: +41 22 770 2967
Email: corpcomms@iata.org
Notes for Editors:
- IATA
(International Air Transport Association) represents some 230
airlines comprising 93% of scheduled international air traffic.
- A hull loss
is an accident in which the aircraft is destroyed or substantially
damaged and is not subsequently repaired for whatever reason
including a financial decision of the owner. IATA tracks and
reports on hull losses involving Western-built jet aircraft. (i.e.
excluding turboprop aircraft and Eastern-built jet aircraft).
- IOSA was
introduced in 2003 and is now a condition of IATA membership, and
any airline wishing to join IATA must first complete IOSA. IATA is
financing IOSA for its members.
- IATA will
populate the GSIC through its key safety initiatives: IATA Safety
Reports, the Safety Trend Evaluation, Analysis & Data Exchange
System (STEADES), findings from the IATA Operational Safety Audit
(IOSA) program, findings from the IATA Safety Audit for Ground
Operations (ISAGO) and IATA Flight Data EXchange (FDX). In addition,
the aircraft ground damage database will be added to the GSIC when
launched at the end of 2010.
- Full access
to this information will be limited, at the early stage of the GSIC,
to only IATA members participating in each program.
- In 2009,
109 ISAGO audits were performed. Ground service providers
start to see the benefit of aligning and structuring their
operations in a better and safer way.
- The goals
of ITQI are to:
- Increase
the resource pool by identifying means to improve industry
attractiveness
- Improve
effectiveness of qualification schemes by developing and
introducing competency-based training
- Increase
global market permeability by ensuring harmonized implementation
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