Aviation accident rate fell in 2016: IATA

The global aviation accident rate has shown a decline at one accident for every 2.56 million flights in 2016 compared to the 2011-15 average, as about four billion people safely flew on 40.4 million flights last year, the IATA has said.
There were 10 fatal accidents with 268 deaths in 2016, compared to an average of 13.4 fatal accidents and 371 deaths annually in the previous five-year period of 2011-2015, said the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which recently released data for the 2016 safety performance of the commercial airline industry.
The data showed that the all accident rate, measured in accidents per 1 million flights, was 1.61, an improvement from 1.79 in 2015.

The 2016 major jet accident rate, measured in hull losses per 1 million flights, was 0.39, which was the equivalent of one major accident for every 2.56 million flights.
However, this was not as good as the rate of 0.32 achieved in 2015 and was also above the five-year rate (2011-2015) of 0.36.
The data for Jet hull loss rates by region of operator per millions departures put Middle East-North Africa region on top at 2.49, compared to Latin America/Caribbean at 0.79, Asia Pacific at 0.38, North America at 0.31 and Europe at 0.27

Commenting on the safety data, Alexandre de Juniac, IATA's Director General and CEO, said last year, some 3.8 billion travellers flew safely on 40.4 million flights.

"The number of total accidents, fatal accidents and fatalities all declined versus the five-year average, showing that aviation continues to become safer," he said.
"We did take a step back on some key parameters from the exceptional performance of 2015. However, flying is still the safest form of long distance travel. And safety remains the top priority of all involved in aviation," de Juniac said.