Commercial aviation registered its third safest year in history in 2018, according to the Aviation Safety Network (ASN), an independent Dutch-based organization that compiles all the world’s aeronautical accidents. Fifteen accidents were recorded last year with airliners that resulted in 556 fatalities, the ninth most reliable year in terms of fatalities.
Of the accidents registered by the ASN last year, 12 of them involved passenger flights and three others of cargo. In addition, three of the 15 crashed planes in 2018 (responsible for 75 fatalities) were operated by airlines banned by the European Union: Iran Aseman Airlines (Iran), Makalu Air (Nepal) and Gomair (Congo).
The CEO of Aviation Safety Network, Harro Ranter, said that the level of safety has increased significantly in commercial aviation: “If the accident rate had remained the same as ten years ago, there would have been 39 fatal accidents last year. At the accident rate of the year 2000, there would have been 64 fatal accidents. This shows the enormous progress in terms of safety in the past two decades. ”
The result of 2018, however, was above the average of the last five years registered by the ASN: 14 accidents and 480 fatalities. The safest year in the history of commercial aviation was 2017, with 10 accidents and 44 lives lost.
According to the organization, in 2018 a fatal accident occurred every 2,520,000 flights while in 2017 were registered about 37,800,000 commercial flights.
Lion Air
The most serious commercial aviation accident in 2018 occurred with a Boeing 737 MAX 8 from Indonesia’s Lion Air on Oct. 29 when 189 people were killed. Aidna under investigation, the accident is likely to cause a sensor uncalled.
The statistics gathered by the ASN are based on fatal accidents around the world involving civil aircraft whose basic model was certified to carry 14 or more passengers, so the April 11 accident involving an Ilyushin IL-76 Air Transport plane of Algeria that killed 257 occupants, the most serious aviation accident in 2018, is not included in the survey. When considering military aircraft accidents, the total number of fatalities last year was 917 people in 25 accidents.
According to statistics from the ASN, which collects data on accidents recorded since 1905, the worst year in commercial aviation history was in 1972, when 77 accidents and 2,525 deaths were recorded.
