International Aviation Association Releases Safety Report

According to an annual safety report released by the International Air Transport Association of Xinhua News Agency on the 9th, despite the occurrence of two major air crashes on the Malaysian Airlines MH370 and MH17, 2014 is still the lowest year in the history of commercial aviation.

The report said that although the death toll from aviation accidents in 2014 exceeded the average in recent years, the ratio of major accidents to total flights was a new low.

The International Air Transport Association represents about 250 airlines around the world. The report shows that in 2014, there were a total of 12 major aviation accidents worldwide, causing 641 deaths. In the five years from 2009 to 2013, an average of 19 major aviation accidents occurred each year, and the death toll was 517 people.

In other words, the air crash rate in 2014 was 0.23 parts per million, which is equivalent to about 1 out of every 4 million flights. In 2013, this ratio was 0.41 parts per million; the average ratio from 2009 to 2013 was 0.58 parts per million.

Tony Taylor, Director-General of the International Air Transport Association, said in a statement: "Although aviation safety was the headline of newspapers in 2014, the data shows that the aviation industry continues to improve its safety performance."

Reuters reported that the statistics did not include the Malaysia Airlines MH17 incident because it was not classified as an aviation accident. In July 2014, flight MH17 crashed near the Russian border in eastern Ukraine and all 298 people were killed. The post-mortem report concluded that the passenger aircraft was being punctured by an “energetic object” at the time and might be disintegrated in the air.

In his statement, Taylor called for the government and airlines to take measures to reduce the danger of flying over conflict areas. "This includes better sharing of important information that threatens civil aviation safety."