Last year was the safest in the history of commercial aviation despite the two Malaysia Airlines disasters in which hundreds of people were killed. According to statistics, the global jet accident rate was the lowest rate in history of air travel and the equivalent of one accident for every 4.4 million flights, although the number of fatalities rose.
Air travel in 2014 saw an improvement over 2013, when the global hull loss rate stood at 0.41 (an average of one accident every 2.4 million flights), and also an improvement over the five-year rate (2009-2013) of 0.58 hull loss accidents per million flights jet, says the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
There were 12 fatal accidents involving all aircraft types in 2014 with 641 fatalities, compared with an average of 19 fatal accidents and 517 fatalities per year in the five-year period, but the jet hull loss rate dropped to just 0.12 (one accident for every 8.3 million flights) from the five-year rate of 0.33.
“Any accident is one too many and safety is always aviation’s top priority. While aviation safety was in the headlines in 2014, the data show that flying continues to improve its safety performance,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO.
IATA, which represents about 250 airlines, said in a statement that the destruction of MH 17 by anti-aircraft weaponry is not included as an accident under globally-recognized accident classification criteria, same as the four aircraft involved in the September 11 terrorist attacks.
“The shooting down of MH 17 took with it 298 lives in an act of aggression that is by any measure unacceptable. Governments and industry have come together to find ways to reduce the risk of over-flying conflict zones. This includes better sharing of critical information about security risks to civil aviation. And we are calling on governments to find an international mechanism to regulate the design, manufacture and deployment of weapons with anti-aircraft capabilities,” said Tyler.
Air travel statistics also show improvements compared to 2013 in all regions except Europe, which maintained the rate of 0.15 jet hull losses per 1 million sectors. Africa usually has the worst safety score, but in 2014 had zero jet hull loss accidents, which is seen as real progress.