Africa improves on global jet accident rating

THE International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released the 2015 global jet accident data where Africa adjudged to have significantly improved on its last five years record with a hull loss of 4.53, also is rated highest among other continents in the world.

The Director General, IATA, Tony Tyler who disclosed this in a statement, expressed delight that: “African safety is moving in the right direction. In 2015 we saw improvements compared to the five-year accident rate for both jet and turboprop hull losses. Nevertheless, challenges to bringing Africa in line with global performance remain.

“One valuable tool to assist this effort is IATA’s Operational Safety Audit (IOSA). The 32 Sub-Saharan airlines on the IOSA registry are performing 3.5 times better than non-IOSA operators in terms of all accidents (3.62 per million flights versus 12.99). States should make IOSA a part of the certification process”.

“Governments in the region also need to accelerate implementation of ICAO’s safety-related standards and recommended practices (SARPS), according to the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program (USOAP). As of the end of January 2016, only 21 African States had accomplished at least 60 per cent of implementation of the SARPS,” said Tyler

He added: “2015 was another year of contrasts when it comes to aviation’s safety performance. In terms of the number of fatal accidents, it was an extraordinarily safe year. And the long-term trend data shows us that flying is getting even safer. Yet we were all shocked and horrified by two deliberate acts—the destruction of Germanwings 9525 and Metrojet 9268. While there are no easy solutions to the mental health and security issues that were exposed in these tragedies, aviation continues to work to minimize the risk that such events will happen again”.

“Now in its 13th year, IOSA continues to be recognized as the gold standard for airline operational audits. In 2016 we will continue to strenthen IOSA to ensure we are maintaining the highest standards of quality assurance in the audit process,” said IATA boss.

IATA noted that airlines on IOSA registry experienced 4 jet hull loss accidents (none fatal) and one fatal turboprop hull loss accident.

It further said that, sub-Saharan airlines had four commercial hull loss accidents in 2015, two involving jets and two involving turboprops. One of the turboprop accidents resulted in passenger fatalities, it noted.
However, IATA explained that this was not as good as the rate of 0.27 achieved in 2014 but a 30 per cent improvement compared to the previous five-year rate (2010-2014) of 0.46 hull loss accidents per million jet flights.

The body also revealed there were four accidents resulting in passenger fatalities in 2015, all of which involved turboprop aircraft, with 136 fatalities. This compares with an average of 17.6 fatal accidents and 504 fatalities per year in the previous five-year period (2010 to 2014), it said.