Last year was safest ever for commercial aviation new figures from the Aviation Safety Network reveal.
Airliner accident statistics from 2017 show there were ten fatal accidents, resulting in 44 deaths.
A further 35 persons were killed on the ground following these accidents.
This makes 2017 the safest year ever, both by the number of fatal accidents as well as in terms of fatalities.
In 2016 Aviation Safety Network recorded 16 accidents and 303 lives lost.
Five of the accidents recorded in 2017 involved cargo flights, while five were passenger flights.
Given the expected worldwide air traffic of about 36,800,000 flights, the accident rate is one fatal passenger flight accident per 7,360,000 flights.
The Aviation Safety Network is an independent organisation located in the Netherlands.
Founded in 1996, it has the aim to provide everyone with an interest in aviation with up-to-date, complete and reliable authoritative information on airliner accidents and safety issues.
The low number of accidents comes as no surprise, according to Aviation Safety Network president Harro Ranter, who explained: “Since 1997 the average number of airliner accidents has shown a steady and persistent decline, for a great deal thanks to the continuing safety-driven efforts by international aviation organisations such as ICAO, IATA, Flight Safety Foundation and the aviation industry.”
On December 31st, aviation had a record period of 398 days with no passenger jet airliner accidents.
Additionally, a record period of 792 days passed since the previous civil aircraft accident claiming over 100 lives.
The statistics are based on all worldwide fatal commercial aircraft accidents (passenger and cargo flights) involving civil aircraft of which the basic model has been certified for carrying 14 or more passengers.
Consequently, the June 7th accident involving a Myanmar Air Force Y-8F transport plane that killed 122 is not included.
When including military transport aircraft as well as non-commercial flights, the total number fatalities would be 230 in 24 fatal accidents.
This remains the lowest numbers in modern aviation history.
The last fatal passenger jet airliner accident occurred on November 28th, when an Avro RJ85 operated by LaMia, came down near Medellin, Colombia.