Many people died in plane crashes last year

Plane crashe.Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / SCANPIX

A total of 556 people lost their lives in 15 accidents in commercial air traffic in the world last year. That is more than in recent years, but low in a historical context.

The figures come from the Aviation Safety Network (ASN), which reports statistics on the world’s aircraft accidents wrote Reuters news agency. 2018 was the third safest year in history when it comes to the number of fatal accidents and the ninth safest in terms of the number of fatalities, ASN said.

Then again, if one goes back beyond 1919,the figure would have been zero.

Huge progress

There were admittedly more accidents last year than the year before, which was the best ever for accident statistics. In 2017, 44 people died in 10 aircraft accidents in commercial civil aviation. The average for the last five years is 10 accidents and 144 deaths per year.

Even though 2018 was worse than the trend in recent years, ASN chief, Harro Ranter, emphasised how few accidents there were, if one sees it from a historical perspective.

“If there had been accidents just as often last year as for ten years, it would have meant 39 fatalities in 2018. With the same accident rate as in 2000, there would have been 64 fatalities last year. It shows the tremendous progress in aviation safety in recent decades” said Ranter in a press release.

Only civilians

The biggest single accident last year occurred when a Boeing 737-8 from Lion Air crashed shortly after departing from Jakarta in Indonesia. 189 people lost their lives.

ASN’s statistics cover all accidents in civil, commercial aviation with aircraft approved for 14 or more passengers. If accidents involving military transport aircraft are included, the total for last year was 25 accidents involving 917 fatalities.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today