Airlines on Track for One of Safest Years

Good news for frequent travelers.  2013 was the second safest year for airline travel, coming in behind 2012.  Read the article below for more information.

From the Wall Street Journal:

GENEVA—Airlines world-wide are on track to complete one of their safest years on record, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Through Nov. 30, this was the second safest year after 2012 in terms of crashes of Western-built airliners. In the 11-month period, there were 11 crashes, or a rate of 0.41 crashes per million flights. One year earlier, there were five crashes, for a rate of 0.21 crashes per million flights.

In terms of fatalities, this year is even safer than last, with 210 deaths, versus 403 in the first 11 months of last year.

Given the small number of accidents, shifts from one year to the next can look big in percentage terms. Safety specialists say that the generally downward trend from a few years ago is significant. Between 2004 and 2008, the world-wide accident rate hovered around 0.75 crashes per million flights, according to IATA.

The lower fatality rate this year, set against the higher accident rate, also "shows the survivability of accidents is improving," said Giancarlo Buono, European director of safety and operations at IATA. "This makes us think that manufacturers and the industry in general are doing a good job in ensuring not only safety but also survivability."

By region, Europe and north Asia were safest, with no crashes. The rate in the Americas was below 0.5 crashes per million flights, while Africa and the former Soviet Union both had accident rates above 2.3 crashes per million flights.

Mr. Buono said Africa has shown "great improvement" in safety despite its high rate, while former Soviet countries are "an area of concern." He said IATA and other organizations are working to help countries with the highest accident rates.

Another area of concern for the industry is pilots' reliance on airplane automation, which has been identified as a factor in accidents including the crash this summer of an Asiana Airlines Inc.  Boeing Co. 777 while landing at San Francisco International Airport in July.

As jetliners have become more computerized over recent years, pilots have come to rely increasingly on the systems. When forced to understand the systems or fly manually, some pilots have struggled.

"In aviation, you always have new threats emerging, and our goal is to manage those threats," Mr. Buono said. Handling automation "is one of those risks."

He said the industry is working to mitigate that risk by modernizing pilot training.