|

IATA Releases 2013 Commercial Aviation Safety Performance Statistics

IATA Releases 2013 Commercial Aviation Safety Performance Statistics

IATA-logoInternational Air Transport Association (IATA) has released the 2013 commercial aviation performance statistics.

According to IATA, more than 3 billion people enjoyed safe air travel last year, through 36.4 million flights. 81 air accidents happened throughout the year, out of which 16 were fatal. The total fatalities in commercial aviation accidents were 210, as compared to 414 in 2012.

Furthermore, the global Western-built jet accident rate for 2013 was 0.41 i.e. one accident per 2.4 million flights. The rate is 14.6% lower than the five year average of 0.48.

The Western-built jet hull loss rate for IATA members remained 0.30 in the year 2013, showing an improvement of 28.6% in the five year average rate of 0.32.

The Director General and CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Tony Tyler has urged the governments and the aviation industry to make combined efforts in order to ensure flight safety. He said that the MH370 case has highlighted the pitfalls in flight tracking technologies. The airline industry, its stakeholders and regulators should make efforts to avoid such accidents in future.

To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.

Similar Posts

  • What’s Wrong with the EU Ban?

    International Air Transport Association’s Tony Tyler is clear and constructive in his criticism of the EU Ban as he holds the floor during IATA Aviation Day in Kazakhstan. (13 September 2012)
    “Let me be clear: the banned list is a misguided approach. It does little if anything to improve safety. There is no transparency—no clarity on why some carriers are put on the list and no clear indication on what is required to get off the list. And some aspects of how the list is administered are absolutely absurd. For example, Air Astana’s exemption to fly to Europe is restricted to aircraft that it had when Kazakhstan was put on the European banned list. So it cannot fly its newest aircraft to Europe. How could that possibly improve safety?”

    Read the full speech on the IATA’s website

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • | | |

    Door Locks Out Air India Captain


    On May 13/14, 2013 the cockpit door of one of Air India’s planes locked the captain out while he was using the toilet. The co-pilot and trainee pilot had to land the plane in Bhopal for ground maintenance engineers to fix the problem.

    On May 13, the flight took off from Delhi for Bangalore.

    Air India’s official statement was that the captain couldn’t return to the cockpit because the door was locked and that all efforts to open it, even from inside, failed during Tuesday’s flight from New Delhi to the southern Indian city of Bangalore.

    The airline claims that no one was endangered during the “unscheduled landing.” No doubt the passengers watching the pilot attempting–and failing–to open the cockpit door would disagree. Apparently there was some degree of panic among the passengers. This is just one in a long series of air safety issues from Air India.

    After the plane landed at 5.55pm, ground maintenance engineers did fix the door. The flight continued to Bangalore at 8.45 pm, and made a safe landing at at 8.45 pm.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • |

    Air Blue Families Safety Activists

    As long as we’re talking about efforts made toward safer skies in Pakistan, we should mention Hans Ephraimson-Abt, the Air Crash Victims Families Group and the Air Blue Families which have been instrumental in:

  • Obtaining interesting progressive and unprecedented rulings from the Peshwar High Court;
  • Obtaining from the Government and Parliament, with the input of the Air Blue 202 families, a new progressive new Air Law;
  • “Lessons Learned” from past experiences;
  • 118 victims in BOJAH B4-123 were positively identified within 24 hours (in the fastest proceedings of other tragedies substantial ID took 4 days in Comair 191 (Lexington, KY);
  • The first 18 burials took place within 24 hours (Saturday);
  • 35 more burials and services could be conducted on Sunday;
  • The Government mandated the inspection of all commercial planes with the exception of PIA that had already been inspected previously.

    I can not emphasize too much how important the Family Association can be. A strong Family Association meets regularly and develops strategies to make sure that their voice is heard. They have a forum to express valid criticisms of flying conditions, the investigation, or other concerns that may develop. What is more important is that sometimes they have the strength to affect change to avoid future tragedies—as they are working to do in Pakistan. And when one Family Association has successes, it can be “catching”.

    In a recent case in Brazil, the Family Association pressured not only the airline company but the military, federal aviation department, and the airport commission all of whom were suspected to have contributed to the accident. The association pushed for criminal prosecution of those who were negligent, as well as against those who allowed wrongdoing to occur. And they didn’t stop there. Leaders like the secretary of Associação Brasileira de Parentes e Amigos das Vítimas de Acidentes Aéreo Christophe Haddad—who lost his fourteen year old daughter to the Tam crash—lend their experience and passion for justice—to other families struck down by tragedy. As Christophe recently told me “Again and again we see the same picture. Pain, sorrow, tragedy, families broken…Hard to comment about but here we are again.”

    With help from men like Christophe Haddad and Hans Ephraimson-ABT, the Air Blue Family Association is developing its own teachers, leaders, and power of influence. In Pakistan, we look forward to when the Air Blue Family Association may become equally as instrumental a force for change in Pakistan as the Brazil group is in Brazil. There is power in right. There is strength in numbers.

    Since 1985, Hans Ephraimson-ABT has been the Chairman of “The American Association for Families of KAL007 Victims.” Since 2000 he has been the spokesman for the “Air Crash Victims Families Group” and is also an invited observer delegate at the “International Civil Aviation Organization.” His group is a model for other groups, and he is a frequent spokesman. He has stakeholder status at the European Union. During the past 26 years, he has participated and served in various capacities in workgroups at the National Security Council, the National Economic Council, two Presidential Commissions, the Task Force that implemented the “Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act of 1996” and subsequently the ICAO “Guide on Assistance to Aircraft Accident Victims and their Families” of 2001. He has been invited to testify before Committees of the US Senate and the House of Representatives. He was one of the original members of the air carrier focus groups that developed and subsequently implemented post-crash crisis management plans in the United States. Since 1996, he has been asked to assist airlines and governments with the resolution of air transportation tragedies, including the “September 11, 2001 Victims Compensation Fund” and as the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the “Families of September 11th Association.” He is often invited to participate and speak at international conferences and he is a published author. He is not a disinterested observer in the fight for aviation safety. He is a survivor. In 1983, his daughter Alice Ephraimson-Abt was aboard Korean Air Lines Flight 007 when it was shot down by a Soviet pilot.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.

  • Fullerton California Procedures Review Seminar

    Coinciding with the announced scheduled closure of the Fullerton Air Traffic Control Tower, a seminar of the “non-tower operations procedures review” is scheduled at Fullerton airport on Sunday, April 7, 2013 at 7:00 PM at the Aviation Facilities, Inc at 4119 West Commonwealth Avenue, Fullerton, CA 92833.

    See Details

    View More Details Available Here

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.

  • Netherlands Will Be Scanning Passengers

    Full body scanners will be used in the Netherlands for flights to the US. There had been US objection based on privacy, but the recent terror threat has overcome the earlier objections. Such scanners likely would have alerted security guards to the materials hidden by Abdulmutallab on his person.

    Neither the European Union nor the US have approved the routine use of the scanners at European airports.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
  • |

    Mangalore Airport Updates

    Indian civil court ordered the attachment of property of the assistant commissioner of Mangalore’s revenue department for not honouring court orders to pay corrected compensation to the people who lost 300 acres to the Mangalore Airport expansion. The individuals were not paid market value and are due the difference.

    Safety recommendations have been made regarding the Mangalore airport by the Mangalore crash Court of Inquiry. The airport’s corrective measures so far, have been installing markers on either side of the runway. Nothing has been done yet to deal with the inadequate “Runway End Safety Area.” Elevating the paved area to 237 is projected to be complete by the end of May.

    To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.