2015 ‘extraordinarily safe year’ for airlines
2015 was one of the safest for airlines, claims IATA – if you exclude the Germanwings and the Metrojet crashes which were ‘deliberate acts’.
The airline industry body said in its annual report that last year was one of the safest for airlines with the number of fatal accidents falling by two thirds.
It said there were four fatal accidents, down from 12 a year earlier, which killed 136 people.
But the figures excluded the losses of 374 passengers and crew from the Germanwings crash, which was caused by a pilot suicide and the Russian Metrojet tragedy which came down in the Sinai Desert due to suspected terrorism.
Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO, said: "2015 was another year of contrasts when it comes to aviation’s safety performance.
"In terms of the number of fatal accidents, it was an extraordinarily safe year. And the long-term trend data show us that flying is getting even safer.
"Yet we were all shocked and horrified by two deliberate acts–the destruction of Germanwings 9525 and Metrojet 9268. While there are no easy solutions to the mental health and security issues that were exposed in these tragedies, aviation continues to work to minimize the risk that such events will happen again."
The total figure of 510 if the Germanwings and Metrojet fatalities were included would still be lower than the 2014 level of 641, but higher than the five-year average of 504.
All regions apart from North America saw their safety performance improve in 2015.
Diane
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