Air Transport

Despite a rash of airliner accidents in August, the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) says that jet hull losses at 1 September this year were slightly down on the figure at the same stage in 2004.

Longer-term trends also look good, with the average hull loss rate for the 1990s being 1.51 per million departures, and the rate for the 2000s so far at 1.15.

Speaking at the 7-10 November International Air Safety Seminar in Moscow, FSF director of technical programmes Jim Burin said that overall safety in the jet fleet continues to improve, but in the turboprop fleet hull loss figures have remained almost the same for the past 10 years. In the 12 months to 1 September this year the world’s airlines suffered 15 jet hull losses compared with 16 at the same point in 2004, but only seven of these involved fatalities. Two of the accidents involved controlled flight into terrain, and eight of them occurred during the approach and landing phase.

Hull loss rates for Western-built jets have gone up compared with the previous 12 months, however, from 0.8 per million departures to 1.15. During the period North American carriers have seen one non-fatal jet hull loss (a Northwest Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9 at Minneapolis) and European carriers have seen one non-fatal (Air France Airbus A340 at Toronto) and one fatal (Helios Airways Boeing 737-300 in Greece).

In the 12 months to 1 September the world’s airlines had suffered 27 turboprop hull loss accidents, of which 15 were fatal. This compares poorly with the jet fleet, which has about twice as many aircraft. Burin also shows there seems to have been little improvement in turboprop accident figures in the last 10 years.

DAVID LEARMOUNT/MOSCOW

Read more on author's blog