Partners and Programs:
  • BARS
  • GSIP
  • SKYbrary
  • ASN
  • Contact Us
  • Members' Center
  • Login
  • Support Aviation Safety

  • Industry Updates
  • The Foundation
    • About the Foundation
    • Asia Pacific Centre for Aviation Safety
    • Founders
    • Mission
    • History
    • Leadership
    • Officers and Staff
    • Media/Communications
    • Aviation Award & Scholarship Programs
    • Work with Us
    • Join Us
  • Events
  • AeroSafety World
  • Toolkits & Resources
    • COVID-19 Crisis Resources
    • Fatigue Management
    • Flight Path Monitoring
    • Global Action Plan for the Prevention of Runway Excursions (GAPPRE)
    • Go-Around Project
    • Global Safety Assessment Project
    • Learning From All Operations
    • Past Safety Initiatives
    • Pilot Training and Competency
    • Special Reports
  • Industry Updates
  • The Foundation
    • About the Foundation
    • Asia Pacific Centre for Aviation Safety
    • Founders
    • Mission
    • History
    • Leadership
    • Officers and Staff
    • Media/Communications
    • Aviation Award & Scholarship Programs
    • Work with Us
    • Join Us
  • Events
  • AeroSafety World
  • Toolkits & Resources
    • COVID-19 Crisis Resources
    • Fatigue Management
    • Flight Path Monitoring
    • Global Action Plan for the Prevention of Runway Excursions (GAPPRE)
    • Go-Around Project
    • Global Safety Assessment Project
    • Learning From All Operations
    • Past Safety Initiatives
    • Pilot Training and Competency
    • Special Reports
  • Contact Us
  • Members' Center
  • Login
  • Support Aviation Safety
Partners and Programs:
  • BARS
  • GSIP
  • SKYbrary
  • ASN

FLIGHT SAFETY FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS

701 N. Fairfax Street, Suite 250,
Alexandria, Virginia 22314

Phone: +1 703 739 6700 Fax: +1 703 739 6708

  • Aviation Safety Experts
  • AeroSafety World
  • AeroSafety World November 2017
  • Elevating Standards

DataLink

Elevating Standards

Efforts focusing on improving aviation safety in Africa are paying off, report says.

by Linda Werfelman | November 21, 2017

Efforts to elevate safety standards in the commercial air transport industry in Africa contributed to a decline in 2016 in the number of total accidents, fatal accidents and fatalities in both jet and turboprop operations — and to a year with no fatal accidents in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).1

IATA’s Safety Report 2016, made public earlier this year, says that in addition to the lack of fatal accidents, no jet hull loss2 accidents were reported in the 48 nations of sub-Saharan Africa,3 and the turboprop accident rate dropped to 3.31 per million flight sectors in 2016, down 42 percent from its 2011–2015 annual average.

“Clearly, the multi-year effort of aviation stakeholders to raise African safety standards is showing encouraging results,” said Gilberto Lopez Meyer, IATA senior vice president, safety and flight operations.

Overall, the report said, the global commercial air transport industry’s safety record improved 54 percent between 2007 and 2016, with a 2016 accident rate of 1.61 accidents per million flight sectors. In 2007, the accident rate was 3.53 per million sectors (Figure 1).

Figure 1 — Jet and Turboprop Accidents per Million Sectors, 2007–2016

Source: International Air Tranport Association

The total accident rate in 2016 was 10 percent below the 2015 rate — with 65 total accidents, compared with 2015’s 68 (Table 1). The report added that “this overall positive performance was counterbalanced by an increase in the number of fatalities, fatal accidents and hull losses versus the previous year.”

Table 1 — 2016 Safety Performance
2016 2015 5 Year Average
(2011–2015)
Source: International Air Transport Association
Fatalities 268 136 371
Total Accidents 65 68 81
Fatal Accidents 10 4 13.4
Fatal Accidents Passenger Flights 4 2 8.4
Fatal Accidents Cargo Flights 6 2 4.6
Percent of Accidents Involving Fatalities 15% 6% 16%
Jet Hull Losses 13 10 10.6
Jet Hull Losses with Fatalities 5 0 5.5
Turboprop Hull Losses 8 8 19.6
Turboprop Hull Losses With Fatalities 5 4 9.2

Fatalities in 2016 totaled 268, up from 136 fatalities in 2015, the report said, adding that there were 10 fatal accidents, compared with four in 2015. Thirteen jet hull losses and eight turboprop hull losses were reported in 2016, up from 10 jet hull losses and eight turboprop hull losses in 2015.

Of 2016’s 10 fatal accidents, six involved cargo flights and four, passenger flights, including Egypt Air Flight 804, Airbus A320 that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on May 19, killing all 66 passengers and crew, and LaMia Flight 2933, an Avro RJ that crashed near Medellín, Colombia, on Nov. 28, killing 71 of the 77 people in the airplane.4

Regional Rates

Regionally, the African region experienced its best safety performance in a decade, the report said, noting that the total accident rate fell 89 percent between 2007 and 2016 (Figure 2).

Figure 2 — African Region Jet and Turboprop Accidents per Million Sectors, 2007–2016

Source: International Air Transport Association

The lowest total accident rates in 2016 were in North Asia and North America, and the highest were in the Middle East and North Africa, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (Figure 3).

Figure 3 — Jet and Turboprop Accidents per Million Sectors by Region, 2016

AFI = Africa; ASPAC = Asia/Pacific; CIS = Commonwealth of Independent States; EUR = Europe; LATAM/CAR = Latin America and the Caribbean; MENA = Middle East and North Africa; NASIA = North Asia

Source: International Air Transport Association

IATA’s breakdown of accidents occurring in Africa in 2016 found that all of them involved turboprop passenger aircraft. In comparison, over the five-year period from 2012 through 2016, 56 percent of accidents in Africa involved passenger aircraft, 35 percent involved cargo aircraft, and 8 percent involved ferry flights; 79 percent of the 2012–2016 accidents involved turboprop aircraft and 21 percent involved jets.

In an analysis of major contributing factors, IATA determined that regulatory oversight was the most frequently cited “latent condition” (52 percent) in 2012–2016 accidents in the Africa region, followed by safety management (44 percent) and management decisions (11 percent). The report defined latent conditions as “conditions present in the system before the accident, made evident by triggering factors … often [relating] to deficiencies in organizational processes and procedures.”

“Manual handling/flight controls” was the most frequently cited flight crew error (26 percent), followed by adherence to and cross-verification of standard operating procedures (19 percent), failure to go around after a destabilized approach (15 percent) and pilot-to-pilot communication (11 percent).

“Airport facilities” was most frequently cited (33 percent) in the “threats” category, followed by four items that each were cited in 19 percent of accidents: contaminated runway/taxiway — poor braking action, aircraft malfunction, meteorology and gear/tire. A threat was defined in the report as “an event or effort that occurs outside the influence of the flight crew but which requires flight crew attention and management to properly maintain safety margins.”

The most frequently cited undesired aircraft state — “a flight crew–induced aircraft state that clearly reduces safety margins; a safety-compromising situation that results from ineffective threat/error management” — was “long/floated/bounced/firm/off-center/crabbed land” (26 percent), followed by vertical/lateral/speed deviation (19 percent) and “abrupt aircraft control (11 percent).

The report said the most frequently cited countermeasures were overall crew performance (19 percent) and “captain should show leadership” (11 percent).

More accidents were in the category of runway or taxiway excursions than in any other category, the report said, and more accidents occurred during landing than in any other phase of flight.

World View

Worldwide, more accidents in 2016 were classified as runway/taxiway excursions (19 percent) than any other accident category, the report said. Gear-up/gear collapse was the second-largest accident category, with 16 percent of total accidents.

Eleven percent of 2016 accidents were classified as loss of control–in flight (LOC-I), and LOC-I accidents not only were responsible for more fatalities than any other category (79 people) but also contributed to “a higher ratio of people who perished, compared to the number of people on board” (Figure 4).

Figure 4 — Accident Frequency and Risk of Fatality, 2016

Source: International Air Transport Association

In addition, the report said, “LOC-I exposed passengers and crew to the highest risk of a catastrophic accident with no survivors, at a rate of about 0.11 accidents per million sectors. This translates into an exposure of one catastrophic accident for every 9.1 million sectors.”

Notes

  1. IATA. Safety Report 2016. April 2017. http://www.iata.org/docx/IATA-Safety-Report-2016-2.pdf.
  2. According to IATA’s definition, hull losses refer to “the aircraft being damaged beyond repair or the costs related to the repair being above the commercial value of the aircraft.”
  3. Sub-Saharan Africa includes all of Africa except the most northern countries — Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia — which are in the Middle East and North Africa region.
  4. The report’s data include only on-board fatalities.

Share:

Print:

Key Safety Issues

  • Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT)
  • Loss of Control–In Flight (LOC-I)
  • Mechanical Issues
  • Runway Safety (approach and landing)
  • Sabotage/Intentional Acts
  • Midair Collisions (MAC)
  • Runway Safety (Conflicts)
  • Wildlife Issues
  • Fatigue
  • Cabin Safety
  • Emerging Safety Issues
    • Lithium Batteries
    • Safety Information Sharing and Protection
    • Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Related Content

accident data, News

More Accidents, Less Risk

IATA saw declines in fatal commercial aviation accidents and fatality risk in 2022, an increase in total accidents and, over the decade, a 48 percent improvement in the accident rate.

by FSF Editorial Staff

COVID-19, Flight Training, News

Safety News in Brief

The FAA has rejected Republic Airways’ request for an exemption to the 1,500-hour rule.

by FSF Editorial Staff

accident data, News

By the Numbers

Boeing statistics show the number of accidents increased in 2021 over the previous year, but fatal accidents and fatalities declined.

by FSF Editorial Staff

Read more articles

701 N. Fairfax Street, Suite 250, Alexandria, Virginia 22314

Phone: +1 703 739 6700 Fax: +1 703 739 6708

Flight Safety Foundation on Twitter

Stop by the @Boeing booth and drop off your business card for a chance to win this 777-9 model! The drawing is on… https://t.co/iZfKWRtYpI

March 22, 2023

Follow @flightsafety

Projects & Partners

  • Basic Aviation Risk Standard
  • Global Safety Information Project
  • SKYbrary
  • Aviation Safety Network
  • Donate
  • Advertise on our website
  • Sponsor & Exhibit at our Events
  • Work with Us
  • Contact Us
  • Site Map
  • Privacy

© 2023 Flight Safety Foundation

Join our group on LinkedIn