Guardian

THE International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced that it was the third consecutive year that the airline industry has scored a record safety performance.

It added that Africa’s accident rate was 57 per cent worse than the previous year at 12.69, stressing that no African IATA Operational Safety Audit carriers had accidents.

IATA has also placed a major emphasis on improving safety in Africa, presenting a plan known as the Abuja Declaration to the Civil Aviation Authorities in Africa in July that prioritises runway safety, loss-of-control prevention training and other measures.

The Senior Vice President, Safety, Operations & Infrastructure, G?nther Matschnigg said in a statement recently that it was “remarkable” achievement, with one accident per 5.3 million flights across the entire industry. “As of the end of November, if you were to take a flight every day, odds are, you would fly 14,000 years without being in an accident,” he noted.

According to IATA, total Western-built hull losses, including non-IATA members as of November 30 stood at five versus eleven for the same period in 2011. The accident rate for IATA-member airlines for this year up to November 30 was 1.03 incidents per 1 million miles. Runway incursions were a major cause of these incidents, although they were down to 17 incidents from 20 in 2011. The world accident rate as of November 30 stood at 2.14 per 1 million miles compared to 2011’s rate of 2.58.

It stated that major crashes that occurred since the IATA December 13 safety briefing include that of a Red Wings Airlines Tupolev, which overshot a Moscow airport runway December 29, killing four of the eight crew onboard. There were no passengers onboard and the aircraft was destroyed. And an Air Bagan Fokker 100 crashed in Burma December 25, killing one passenger and one person on the ground. That aircraft was also destroyed.

Neither of those airlines is among IATA’s 240 members, so the hull losses do not affect the organisation’s 2012 clear record. However, they will affect the world safety performance rate, which includes Eastern and Western jet and turboprop airlines across all airlines, noted IATA.

By region, the body explained that North America’s accident rate improved in 2012 with 0.97 incidents per 1 million miles compared with the previous year’s rate of 1.56.  Latin America and the Caribbean saw its rate improve 74 per cent to 1.37 and the accident rate in the Commonwealth of Independent States was 60 per cent better than the previous year at 4.29.