By Recto Mercene
IN terms of global jet-accident rate, 2015 turns out to be better than the previous five years (2010-2014), but not as good as 2014, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata).
The Center for Asia Pacific Aviation (Capa) quoted the Iata findings, released on February 15. The data indicated last year’s safety performance of the commercial airline industry—in hull losses per million flights off 0.32, or one major accident per 3.1 million flights.
A hull loss is an aviation accident that damages the aircraft beyond economical repair, resulting in a write off. The term also applies to missing aircraft, the search for its wreckage is terminated or when the wreckage is completely inaccessible.
Excluded from the 2015 accident statistics are the loss of Germanwings Flight 9525 (pilot suicide), and Metrojet Flight 9268 (suspected terrorism), that resulted in the deaths of 374 passengers and crew.
These are excluded as they are classified as deliberate acts of unlawful interference, Iata said.
“This is a 30-percent improvement compared to the previous five-year rate [2010-2014] of 0.46 hull loss accidents per million jet flights, but not as good as the rate of 0.27 achieved in 2014,” Iata said.
There were four fatal accidents in 2015, with 136 passenger fatalities worldwide.
All accidents involved turboprop aircraft, Iata said. This compares with an average of 17.6 fatal accidents and 504 fatalities per year in the previous five-year period (2010-2014).
“[There was] no fatal accident hull losses in 2015, [but] accidents were down 30 percent compared to five-year average,” Iata said.
Iata said the statistics involved 3.5 billion passengers on 37.6 million flights in 2015 (31.4 million by jet, 6.2 million by turboprop).
It added that 6 percent of all the accidents were fatal, below the five-year average of 19.6 percent.
There were 10 hull-loss accidents involving jets compared to eight in 2014 and the five-year average of 13 per year.
There were no jet hull-loss accidents involving passenger fatalities, down from three in 2014, and the five-year average of 6.4 per year.
The 68 accidents recorded in 2015 (all aircraft types) were down from 77 in 2014 and the five-year average of 90 per year.
Except for North America, all regions saw their safety performance improve in 2015 compared to the five-year rate.
Iata noted safety improvements in Sub-Saharan airlines which recorded four hull-loss accidents in 2015—two involving jets and two involving turboprops. One of the turboprop accidents resulted in passenger fatalities.
“African safety is moving in the right direction. In 2015 we saw improvements compared to the five-year accident rate for both jet and turboprop hull losses. Nevertheless, challenges to bringing Africa in line with global performance remain,” Iata said.
Also, the world turboprop hull- loss rate improved to 1.29 losses per million flights in 2015 compared to 3.95 in 2010 to 2014.
IATA represents some 260 airlines comprising 83 percent of global air traffic.