Last Year the Safest in History for Commercial Airlines

Nervous fliers, indeed all travellers, will be delighted to hear that 2017 was the safest year in history for commercial airlines, according to industry research.

There were no passenger jets crashes anywhere in the world, separate reports by Dutch consultancy To70 and The Aviation Safety Network found. And this was despite more flights being made than ever before.

The Dutch company said that despite high safety levels on passenger planes, the “extraordinarily” low accident rate must be seen as “good fortune”.

A report by the Airline Safety Network said that there were a total of 10 fatal accidents, resulting in 79 deaths last year, but none involving commercial airlines. The organisation based its figures on incidents involving civil aircraft certified to carry at least 14 people.

Aviation deaths have been steadily falling for the last two decades. In 2005, there were more than 1,000 deaths on-board commercial passenger flights worldwide, the Aviation Safety Network said.

The last fatal passenger jet airliner accident took place in November 2016 in Colombia, and the last commercial passenger aircraft crash to kill more than 100 people occurred in Egypt a year earlier.
ASN said the accident rate was just one fatal passenger flight accident per 7,360,000 flights.

“Since 1997 the average number of airliner accidents has shown a steady and persistent decline, for a great deal thanks to the continuing safety-driven efforts by international aviation organisations such as ICAO, IATA, Flight Safety Foundation and the aviation industry,” ASN president Harro Ranter said.

“2017 was the safest year for aviation ever,” said Adrian Young of To70, but added civil aviation still carried “very large risks”.

 

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