ICAO releases preliminary safety and security statistics for 2008

Regarding safety, there were 11 aircraft accidents involving passenger fatalities on scheduled air services worldwide for aircraft with a maximum take-off mass of more than 2250 kg, usually seven passengers or more. This does not include aircraft accidents caused by acts of unlawful interference. The total number of passenger fatalities was 439. In 2007, there were 587 passenger fatalities from 11 accidents.

The accident rate for scheduled air services - measured in passenger fatalities per 100 million passenger-kilometres performed (PKPs) - decreased marginally, from approximately 0.01391 in 2007 to about 0.01370 in 2008. This was almost identical to the 2007 rate, despite a 25% reduction in the number of passenger fatalities, due to a slight increase in total PKPs of around 1.5%

From 1990-2008, there has been a significant decline in the accident rate, from around 19 accidents per 10 million departures in 1990 to around four in 2008. There were 29 fatal accidents in 1990 compared to 11 in 2008.

For non-scheduled operations, there were 12 accidents involving passenger fatalities for aircraft with a maximum take-off mass of more than 2250 kg in 2008, compared with 14 in 2007. These accidents accounted for 80 passenger fatalities in 2008 compared with 86 in 2007. Comprehensive traffic figures for these operations are not available for the purpose of estimating accident rates.

Regarding security in 2008, 24 acts of unlawful interference were recorded in which a total of 11 persons were killed and 31 were injured. This compares to 22 acts in 2007, with 18 persons killed and 33 injured.

President of the Council of ICAO, Roberto Kobeh González said, “While the safety and security of commercial aviation keeps improving over the long term, we continue to work with Member States and the industry to consistently reduce even more the number of accidents and fatalities. This is imperative if air transport is to keep growing and contribute to the economic and social development of all regions of the world.”

(c) Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Date posted: 23-Mar-09