Air safety 2023: Accidents and fatalities at record low
Commercial aviation was safer in 2023 than in any previous year. According to a leading air safety expert, last year set a new record for the fewest accidents and deaths. Only two fatal accidents occurred during the 12 months, compared with six in 2022. In both crashes, propeller aircraft came down on domestic flights, with a total of 86 deaths – fewer than half the 178 fatalities in 2023. For comparison, 148 people die in the average hour on the world’s roads according to the latest UN figures. No fatal aircraft accidents involved international flights or passenger jets. In a civil aviation safety review for the Dutch air-safety organisation To70, senior aviation consultant Adrian Young writes: “Both the number of accidents and fatalities are at a record low.” The fatal accident rate was less than one in 15m flights – three times better than the 10-year average. The first and deadliest crash was in Nepal on 15 January 2023. An ATR-72 belonging to Yeti Airlines took off and flew normally from Kathmandu to Pokhara, but plunged into a gorge one mile short of the runway. The subsequent investigation found that high workload and stress on the flight deck was responsible. Young says the accident report revealed the pilots’ actions resulted in “the feathering of both propellers and subsequent loss of thrust, leading to an aerodynamic stall”. The second fatal accident was in Brazil on 16 September 2023, when an Embraer 110 belonging to Manaus Airlines crashed on a flight from the Amazonian city to Barcelos during bad weather. All 14 passengers and crew died. The safety of jet aircraft repeats the unlikely success of 2017, according to Young. “As the new year dawns and we look back across 2023, civil aviation finds itself in a similar position to 2017 with no fatal accidents to large turbofan powered, passenger aeroplanes in commercial service,” he writes. This category encompasses everything from commuter jets of the type used at London City airport to the Airbus A380 “SuperJumbo”.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2024-01-02/general/air-safety-2023-accidents-and-fatalities-at-record-low
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Air safety 2023: Accidents and fatalities at record low
Commercial aviation was safer in 2023 than in any previous year. According to a leading air safety expert, last year set a new record for the fewest accidents and deaths. Only two fatal accidents occurred during the 12 months, compared with six in 2022. In both crashes, propeller aircraft came down on domestic flights, with a total of 86 deaths – fewer than half the 178 fatalities in 2023. For comparison, 148 people die in the average hour on the world’s roads according to the latest UN figures. No fatal aircraft accidents involved international flights or passenger jets. In a civil aviation safety review for the Dutch air-safety organisation To70, senior aviation consultant Adrian Young writes: “Both the number of accidents and fatalities are at a record low.” The fatal accident rate was less than one in 15m flights – three times better than the 10-year average. The first and deadliest crash was in Nepal on 15 January 2023. An ATR-72 belonging to Yeti Airlines took off and flew normally from Kathmandu to Pokhara, but plunged into a gorge one mile short of the runway. The subsequent investigation found that high workload and stress on the flight deck was responsible. Young says the accident report revealed the pilots’ actions resulted in “the feathering of both propellers and subsequent loss of thrust, leading to an aerodynamic stall”. The second fatal accident was in Brazil on 16 September 2023, when an Embraer 110 belonging to Manaus Airlines crashed on a flight from the Amazonian city to Barcelos during bad weather. All 14 passengers and crew died. The safety of jet aircraft repeats the unlikely success of 2017, according to Young. “As the new year dawns and we look back across 2023, civil aviation finds itself in a similar position to 2017 with no fatal accidents to large turbofan powered, passenger aeroplanes in commercial service,” he writes. This category encompasses everything from commuter jets of the type used at London City airport to the Airbus A380 “SuperJumbo”.<br/>
