IATA: Despite recent tragedies, flying is safe and getting safer

IATA director general and CEO Tony Tyler said (15-Apr-2015) the past 13 months "have been an extraordinarily difficult time for aviation safety" but there is also "no question that flying is safe and getting safer". In 2014 there were 12 fatal accidents, with two so far in 2015. For 2014, the global jet accident rate measured in hull losses per one million flights was 0.23, the equivalent of one major accident for every 4.4 million flights. This was the lowest rate in history and a 60% reduction compared to the five-year rate of one major accident for every 1.7 million flights. According to Mr Tyler, the aviation industry is moving forward to identify and address what has come to light as a result of the recent tragedies:

• In response to the disappearance and loss of MH 370, the aviation industry has welcomed the proposal by ICAO to move towards the adoption of a performance-based standard for global tracking of commercial aircraft, supported by multi-national operational assessments to evaluate impact and guide implementation;
• Following the shooting down of MH 17, governments and industry joined together to find ways to reduce the risk of over-flying conflict zones. This includes better sharing of critical information about security risks to civil aviation. IATA is calling on governments to find an international mechanism to regulate the design, manufacture and deployment of anti-aircraft weapons;
• Based on revelations in the Germanwings tragedy, some airlines and some regulators have implemented requirements for having two persons in the cockpit at all times.

Mr Tyler also noted that future safety gains will come increasingly from analysing data from all flights, not just flights where something goes wrong. The Global Aviation Data Management (GADM) programme, a comprehensive safety data warehouse includes analysis reports covering accidents, incidents, ground damage, maintenance and audits, plus data from nearly 2 million flights and over 1 million air safety reports. Learning from GADM will help to drive forward IATA's Six-Point Safety Strategy. [more - original PR]