The number of people killed in large commercial airplane crashes last year rose to 299 worldwide, even as the number of crashes fell by more than 50 percent, a Dutch consulting firm said on Friday.
Aviation consulting firm To70 said that last year there were 40 accidents involving large commercial passenger planes, five of which were fatal, resulting in 299 fatalities.
In 2019 there were 86 accidents, eight of which were fatal, resulting in 257 fatalities.
Photo: AP
Large commercial airplanes had 0.27 fatal accidents per million flights last year, or one fatal crash every 3.7 million flights — up from 0.18 fatal accidents per million flights in 2019, To70 said.
The decline in crashes came amid a sharp decline in flights due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Flightradar24 reported commercial flights it tracked worldwide last year fell 42 percent to 24.4 million.
More than half of all deaths in the To70 review were the 176 people killed in January last year, when a Ukrainian plane was shot down in Iranian airspace.
The second deadliest incident was the May crash of a Pakistan airliner, which killed 98.
Large passenger airplanes covered by the statistics are used by nearly all travelers on airlines, but exclude small commuter airplanes in service.
Over the past two decades, aviation deaths have been falling dramatically.
In 2005, there were 1,015 deaths aboard commercial passenger flights worldwide, the Aviation Safety Network (ASN) said.
Over the past five years, there have been an average of 14 fatal accidents for commercial passenger and cargo planes resulting in 345 deaths annually, the ASN said.
In 2017, aviation had its safest year on record worldwide, with only two fatal accidents involving regional turboprops that resulted in 13 deaths and no fatal crashes of passenger jets.
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
THIRD IN A ROW? An expert said if the report of a probe into the defense official is true, people would naturally ask if it would erode morale in the military Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said yesterday, the latest official implicated in a crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said that the investigation into Dong was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Chinese embassy in Washington replied to a request for confirmation yesterday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. A former navy
‘VIOLATIONS OF DISCIPLINE’: Miao Hua has come up through the political department in the military and he was already fairly senior before Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 A member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday. Miao Hua (苗華) was director of the political work department on the commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing military. He was one of five members of the commission in addition to its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes to corruption. It is the third recent major shakeup for China’s defense establishment. China in June
RSS