Air carrier safety, security results improve in 2004
Montreal, Quebec-based International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has reported passenger fatality figures for 2004 were the lowest since 1945, with the accident rate for scheduled air services (measured in passenger fatalities per 100 million passenger-kilometers) decreasing from approximately 0.015 in 2003 to about 0.005 in 2004.
Not including aircraft accidents caused by acts of unlawful interference, the ICAO said there were nine aircraft accidents involving passenger fatalities on scheduled air services worldwide for aircraft with a maximum take-off mass of more than 2250 kilograms. The total number of passenger fatalities in 2004 was 203. In 2003, there were 466 passenger fatalities from seven accidents.
For non-scheduled operations, there were 18 accidents involving passenger fatalities for aircraft with a maximum take-off mass of more than 2250 kg in 2004 compared with 25 in 2003. These accidents accounted for 207 passenger fatalities in 2004 compared with 217 in 2003.
In 2004, there were 16 acts of unlawful interference recorded in which 91 persons were killed and eight injured. Among these were four recorded incidents of sabotage or attempted sabotage, two of which were carried out simultaneously by suicide bombers on aircraft in-flight on Aug. 24 in Russia. These resulted in the total destruction of the two aircraft and the death of 90 persons.
There was also one act of successful aircraft hijacking in 2004, compared with three acts recorded in 2003. The number of airport attacks or attempted airport attacks decreased from 10 in 2003 to four in 2004, one of which was an attack within the terminal building, the ICAO said.