If you plan to fly off on your holidays this Christmas or New Year,
relax. Forget the fact that airliner crashes have killed more people in the
world this year than ever before. According to aviation information consultancy
Airclaims, 1,187 passengers have been killed in 1996, three times more than last
year. 61) But despite this increase, described by aviation experts as a
statistical abnormality, the overall trend is for an even lower rate of
accidents. Increased growth in travel may give the impression that the
actual accident incidence is increasing. 62) Spectacular catastrophes
grab the headlines, like the mid-air collision between a Saudi Arabia Airlines
Boeing 747 and a Kazakh Airlines Ilyushin IL-76 freighter near New Delhi last
month, which killed 349. But the accidents on the world’s roads kills
hundreds of thousands of people and goes largely unreported. 63) So
while you’re strapped in your seat at 37.000 feet. and the first sign of clear
air turbulence starts to rattle the ice in your gin. don’t worry. The
cruising section of air travel almost. never leads to accidents. It’s the
take-off and landing phase where most fatal accidents occur. Experts say it
is still much safer than traveling in a car, unless you are in an elderly jet,
or flying into relatively dangerous airspace over continents like
Africa. "I don’t want to be overly calm, but fortunately fatalities are
relatively rare. Having an extra one or two crashes can make a considerable
increase. The trend is to halve passenger deaths (per flight) every l0 years,"
said Airclaims director Paul Hayes. Flight International Safety editor David
Learmount agrees. "There are about 40 accidents every year including cargo
planes. We’ve had about 34 so far this year, so in terms of numbers it’s not
been bad," Learmount said. "But some have been very nasty this year. Since the
previous worst year in 1985 (when 1,169 died in Western built planes) there was
only about half the amount of aviation that there is now; so this year is
markedly safer than 1985." According to Learmount, old planes still present
sound safety records. However later, highly automated 747s and Airbuses do have
a better safety record, Learmount said, using a Boeing study as an example. 64)
Some experts worry about hidden problems which might show themselves in older
planes, which tend to migrate to less developed countries’ airlines while
Western outfits buy new planes. 65) "Older jets are a serious concern to
the industry. Reservations are expressed privately about the number of older
aircraft," said Paul Beaver, spokesman for Jane’s Defence Weekly. "It’s not a
crisis, just something they’ve got to be aware of."