Five times as many people died in air-transport accidents during the second half of 1997 as in the first six months, and there were half as many again fatal accidents. Preliminary figures, however, show that overall, 1997 was close to the annual average for the decade.
Airline fatalities for 1997 totalled about 1,270 and the number of fatal accidents was around 45.The full analysis of 1997 world airline safety, will appear in Flight International's 21-27 January issue.
December has been particularly bad. Following the AeroSwit Yakovlev Yak-42 crash in Greece, and the Tajik Air Tupolev Tu-154 accident in Sharjah (Flight International, 24 December, 1997-6 January), on 19 December a Silk Air Boeing 737-300 (9V-TRF) disappeared, without an emergency call, in the cruise phase of its flight from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Singapore. The main wreckage has been located in the Musi river north of Palembang, Sumatra. All 104 people on board died. Wreckage is spread over some 25km sq (10 miles sq).The flight-data recorder has been recovered.
All 89 people on board a Bangladesh Biman Fokker F28 escaped when it hit level ground 3km short of the runway at Sylhet on a 22 December night approach in fog.
Source: Flight International
