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Aviation History
1997
1997 - 0110.PDF
HEADLINES 1996 spawns worst-ever accident totals DAVID LEARMOUNT/LONDON THREE GRIM AIRLINE accident records were set in 1996. Commercial passenger and cargo airlines worldwide suffered more fatal accidents, more on board fatalities and, by a massive margin, more crash-caused deaths on the ground than ever before. This has established an already- emerging upward trend for the 1990s in the numbers of fatal acci dents and fatalities. Excluding events caused by sabotage or hijack, airlines in 1996 suffered 57 fatal accidents and 1,840 fatalities, compared with 56 accidents and 1,213 casualties in 1995. The latter year had itself set die record for the highest number of fatal accidents. In 1985, the pre vious worst year for fatalities, tiiere were 1,801 deaths in 39 accidents. If crashes caused by illegal inter ference with flights are included, 1985 remains the worst year, with 2,230 deaths against the 1996 absolute total of 1,968 fatalities. The difference is generated by the A mid-air collision near New Delhi added to an already grim 1996 magnitude of the 1985 Air India tragedy, in which a Boeing 747 was brought down in the Atlantic by a terrorist bomb, killing all 329 peo ple on board. The 23 November, 1996, hijack of an Ethiopian Airlines 767 resulted in die deadi of 128 people when the pilots were forced to ditch the aircraft near die Comoros Islands. According to International Civil Aviation Organisation figures, however, scheduled passenger traf fic in 1985 was only some 66% of diat for 1996. If the 1985 accident numbers were factored for the traf fic increase to 1996, the statistical extrapolation would give 2,729 fatalities and 59 accidents. Com paring the two worst years on record, therefore, the statistical risk to individual passengers has decreased significantly. Perhaps die most shocking 1996 result, by comparison with previ ous years, was die number of deadis on the ground caused by crashes, which was 364. Some 300 of these, together widi 253 serious injuries, occurred in a single accident at Kinshasa, Zaire, when the pilot of a Scibe Airlift Antonov An-32 freighter aborted its take-off. The aircraft overran the runway by about 600m, ploughing through a busy shantytown marketplace. Two other freighters between them were responsible for another 50 deaths and 60 serious injuries. The worst previous third-party fatality accident also involved a freighter and occurred in 1966: a Flying Tigers Canadair CL-44 crashed in fog on a radar-assisted approach to Da Nang, Vietnam, killing 107 people on die ground, says the Airclaims World Airline Accident Survey. The UK Civil Aviation Authority's new Accident Analysis Unit says that freighters have a "far higher" accident rate than do passenger aircraft. 3 Afidl listing and analysis of 1996 accidents, accident causes and air line-safety issues starts on P31. BA wins approval for Air Liberie rescue BRITISH AIRWAYS and the Rivaud group have won court approval for their take-over of Air Liberte, the French regional carri er forced to seek a rescuer after running out of cash in September. BA and Rivaud emerged as the winning bidders early in No vember, but had to wait until the new year for a French commercial tribunal to give its assent to the recovery plan. BA will now invest Fr440 million ($86 million) and take a 67% stake in the airline, while Rivaud injects Frl90 million for another 28%. The recovery measures, already in place, include promises to keep 1,249 jobs and 13 aircraft. The fleet consists of three long-haul McDonnell Douglas DC-10s, seven MD-83s and three Boeing 737s, but the aim is to have only one medium-haul type by the end of 1997. Marc Rochet, head of BAi partner TAT European Airways, is confirmed as chairman. • Thai austerity regime hits civil/military projects PAUL LEWIS/SINGAPORE THAILAND HAS announced a range of financial austerity measures, throwing into doubt the national airline's five-year fleet re- equipment plan and putting major new defence acquisitions on ice. The package of economic mea sures announced by the recently elected coalition Government is aimed at cutting Thailand's bal looning current-account deficit. The new Thai prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh is report edly looking to make savings of up to 50 billion baht (S2 billion) over die next two years. In an effort to reduce the deficit from the present 8.2% to 7% of gross domestic product, Chavalit has asked state-owned Thai Airways International to reconsid er its 143 billion baht re-equip ment programme. Chavalit has suggested diat the airline lease, radier than purchase, any new aircraft. Thai announced orders in 1996 for 21 new aircraft, consisting of five Airbus Industrie A300-600Rs and four A3 3 0-3 00s, two Boeing 747-400s, six 777-300s and four 737-400/500s, none of which the Government has yet approved. More recently, it signed a tentative purchase agreement for seven Boeing 747-500/600s. The airline's board plans to meet on 16January to discuss the matter. Industry officials are confident, however, tJiat the deals can be financially restructured to go ahead. Boeing and Airbus have recently had to reach similar accommodations with cash- strapped Garuda Indonesia on outstanding aircraft orders. At the same time, Chavalit has ruled out any major new defence purchases for the remainder of this financial year and for 1997/8. Cuts will include programmes already targeted for postponement by the previous Government, including the army's 28 billion baht Star of Siam satellite programme. In addition, cuts in defence expenditure effectively rule out the provision of any money in 1997/8 for the air force's planned purchase of eight additional McDonnell Douglas F-18C/D fighters. Funding for die follow-on batch of fighters has already slipped once, having earlier been pencilled in for 1996/7 Flight International, 4-10 December, 1996). The air force is being asked in the meantime to vacate Bangkok's Don Muang International Airport to make room for urgendy needed development to meet new civilian requirements. The move is in response to repeated delays in completing Bangkok's new airport at Nong Ngu Hao, which will not now be finished until 2003 at the earliest, says the Government. As an interim measure, Thailand's airport authority has approved a 4 billion baht expansion for Don Muang. • 4 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 15 - 21 January 1997
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