Air safety 2023: Accidents and fatalities at record low

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Commercial aviation was safer in 2023 than in any earlier yr. According to a number one air safety knowledgeable, final yr set a brand new record for the fewest accidents and deaths.

Only two deadly accidents occurred throughout the 12 months, in contrast with six in 2022.

In each crashes, propeller plane got here down on home flights, with a complete of 86 deaths – fewer than half the 178 fatalities in 2023. For comparability, 148 individuals die within the common hour on the world’s roads in keeping with the most recent UN figures.

No deadly plane accidents concerned worldwide flights or passenger jets.

In a civil aviation safety evaluate for the Dutch air-safety organisation To70, senior aviation marketing consultant Adrian Young writes: “Both the number of accidents and fatalities are at a record low.”

The deadly accident fee was lower than one in 15 million flights – 3 times higher than the 10-year common.

The first and deadliest crash was in Nepal on 15 January 2023. An ATR-72 belonging to Yeti Airlines took off and flew usually from Kathmandu to Pokhara, however plunged right into a gorge one mile wanting the runway.

The subsequent investigation discovered that prime workload and stress on the flight deck was accountable.

Mr Young says the accident report revealed the pilots’ actions resulted in “the feathering of both propellers and subsequent loss of thrust, leading to an aerodynamic stall”.

The second deadly accident was in Brazil on 16 September 2023, when an Embraer 110 belonging to Manaus Airlines crashed on a flight from the Amazonian metropolis to Barcelos throughout dangerous climate. All 14 passengers and crew died.

The safety of jet plane repeats the unlikely success of 2017, in keeping with Mr Young.

“As the new year dawns and we look back across 2023, civil aviation finds itself in a similar position to 2017 with no fatal accidents to large turbofan powered, passenger aeroplanes in commercial service,” he writes. This class encompasses all the things from commuter jets of the kind used at London City airport to the Airbus A380 “SuperJumbo”.

The infamous crash of a non-public jet carrying the boss of Russia’s Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is excluded.

The aircraft crashed with the lack of all 10 on board on 23 August 2023 throughout a flight from Moscow to St Petersburg. Reports declare an ally of Vladimir Putin was accountable for inserting a bomb on the Embraer 135 plane.

International legislation requires international locations to contain the nation the place the aircraft was made, on this case Brazil. But Russia refused to contain the Brazilian authorities or the plane producer within the investigation. Mr Young describes this as “an unwelcome step that goes against the collaborative nature of accident investigation and does not help with the main reason to investigate accidents; the learning of lessons”.

The safety knowledgeable warns of “a number of incidents and non-fatal accidents that require the industry to remain vigilant”.

He writes: “Regardless of how low the accident rate in 2023 has been, there is no cause for complacency.

“Aviation remains a risk-laden industry and as airports around the world report that movements are reaching the same level as in 2019, before the Covid 19 crisis, a number of issues have not gone away.

“Serious injuries due to turbulence remain an ever-present factor in the year’s accidents.”

Eleven passengers aboard a constitution flight from Barbados to Manchester have been damage when their Airbus A330 encountered clear air turbulence over the Atlantic. The aircraft diverted to Bermuda on Christmas Eve.

This yr will see the tenth anniversary of the 2 tragedies involving Boeing 777 plane belonging to Malaysia Airlines.

On 8 March 2014, flight MH370 disappeared whereas on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The jet is presumed to have come down within the Indian Ocean west of Australia. No hint has been discovered of the 227 passengers and 12 crew.

On 17 July 2014, flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was downed by a Russian missile fired from rebel-held territory in jap Ukraine. All 298 passengers and crew perished.