2015: No fatal plane accident

The latest airline-safety statistics show that for all of 2015, not a single passenger died from a jetliner accident anywhere in the world.
Capping years of unprecedented improvements in overall commercial-aviation crash rates, data released Monday by the airline industry’s leading international trade association show what had been considered an unreachable goal: zero fatalities from the crash of a passenger jetliner attributed to pilot error, aircraft malfunctions, bad weather or any combination of those factors.
The same group reported three fatal jetliner accidents around the world that destroyed the planes in 2014, and six in 2013. That segment of the industry is the one most closely watched by regulators and safety experts, and it is the one expected to grow the fastest in most developing markets.
The latest figures, which exclude planes believed to have been brought down by criminal acts, also revealed the number of deadly accidents for all planes fell at least 50% from 2014, with a comparable reduction in fatality counts.
Taking into account the 37.6 million flights by jets and turboprops that safely transported more than 3.5 billion passengers world-wide last year, the International Air Transport Association called it an “extraordinarily safe year” with the overall number of fatal accidents and deaths down sharply from the already low levels of a year earlier.
Looked at more broadly, the 2015 data underscored that the frequency of major jetliner accidents was well below the benchmark, five-year rate recorded between 2010 and 2014.
But the 2015 numbers ushered in what may be viewed as a new safety era altogether.
Except for two modern, Western-built jets suspected of being brought down by the intentional acts of a pilot and saboteur, every fatal airline accident last year involved turboprops, IATA said.
The association listed four fatal turboprop accidents last year that killed a total of 136 people. Yet even in this category, featuring smaller planes operated by generally less-experienced pilots flying into more-remote strips, the number of fatal accidents dropped dramatically from 2014.
Globally, roughly one out of six passengers traveled on propeller-driven planes, and that industry segment has generally lagged behind safety gains by larger, jet-powered aircraft.
But according to the latest numbers, the rate of major turboprop crashes fell to about 1.3 per million flights world-wide, dropping about 60% from 2014. Except for North Asia, every region showed year-to-year improvement. And four out of seven IATA regions recorded no such accidents at all.
By contrast, the rate of major jet accidents, in which aircraft were damaged too badly to be returned to service, came in at one accident for roughly every three million flights.
Tony Tyler, IATA’s director-general and chief executive, singled out safety advances by sub-Saharan Africa, a region that by some measures is the most dangerous place to fly. He said “safety is moving in the right direction” even there, with local carriers notching improvements for both jets and turboprops. “Nevertheless, challenges to bringing Africa in line with global [safety] performance remain.”
As in 2014, the latest accident rates exclude a pair of jetliners believed to have been brought down by intentional acts. In 2015, they were Germanwings Flight 9525, which crashed into the French Alps last March after investigators believe its suicidal co-pilot purposely put the Airbus A320 into a fatal dive; and Metrojet Flight 9268, suspected of crashing in October after explosion of a bomb smuggled on board.
The 2014 plane loss totals included Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which dropped off radar scopes and is believed to have run out of fuel over the Indian Ocean; and Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, allegedly shot down by a high-altitude antiaircraft missile while cruising over Ukraine.
In terms of the industry’s global operations, “long-term trend data shows us that flying is getting even safer” than indicated by previous record-low accident totals, Mr. Tyler said.
“Yet we were all shocked and horrified by two deliberate acts” that occurred in 2015, he said, adding that “there are no easy solutions to the mental health and security issues that were exposed in these tragedies.”
The Wall Street Journal