Global commercial aviation industry sees more accidents in 2022 says IATA

The accident rate in the global commercial aviation industry rose to 1.21 or one accident for every 8,26,088 flights last year, as the number of accidents increased to 39 during the period, according to IATA.

In a detailed report released on Tuesday, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that however, the fatal accident rate in the global commercial aviation industry improved to 0.16 per million sectors last year compared to 0.27 per million sectors in 2021.

The commercial aviation industry suffered 39 total accidents in 2022, an increase from 29 in 2021.

"The all accident rate rose from 1.13 per million sectors in 2021 to 1.21 in 2022. Overall, there was one accident for every 8,26,088 flights. This means that a person taking one flight every day, would need to fly for 2,263 years before experiencing an accident," it said.

The accident count pertains to commercial aviation operations, specifically scheduled/charter passenger or cargo service. Executive jet operations, training, maintenance/ test flights are all excluded.

Little over 32 million flights were operated in 2022, which is a 25 per cent rise compared to 2021 but still 31 per cent lower compared to 2019.

The report said that five accidents in 2022 resulted in fatalities, compared to seven in 2021.

"As a result, the fatal accident rate improved from 0.27 per million sectors in 2021 to 0.16 for 2022, which was also ahead of the 5-year fatal accident rate of 0.20. Despite the reduction in the number of fatal accidents, the number of fatalities rose from 121 to 158," it noted.

IATA said that the majority of fatalities occurred in a single aircraft accident in China that killed 132 persons and the next largest loss of life occurred in an accident in Tanzania that resulted in 19 fatalities.

"Accidents are rare in aviation. There were five fatal accidents among 32.2 million flights in 2022. That tells us that flying is among the safest activities in which a person can engage. But even though the risk of flying is exceptionally low, it is not risk-free," IATA Director General Willie Walsh said.

-B