With four months left, 2010 is poised to become the deadliest year for passenger aircraft accidents in the past five years, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Through the first eight months of this year, there have been 13 fatal airplane crashes around the globe, according to the London-based aviation consulting firm Ascend Worldwide. That already matches the total for 2008, and is three more deadly crashes than occurred in 2009.
Because of significant safety improvements over the past several decades, airline experts think that declines in crashes are starting to level off. Kevin Hiatt, the executive vice president of the nonprofit organization Flight Safety Foundation, told the Wall Street Journal, “You can look at it as a plateau in the western world.”
While any jump in plane crashes is worrying, the 2010 figures don’t necessarily represent a return to a more dangerous past in the airline industry. Fifty years ago, there were 36 accidents per 1 million flights; in the past decade, that number hasn’t exceed 0.6 accidents per million takeoffs.
As Hiatt indicates, a major focus for safety is in the developing world, with Africa the most dangerous continent to step on a plane. The Federal Aviation Administration says African airlines suffered catastrophic plane accidents with 25 times the frequency of their counterparts in the U.S. Carriers in the Middle East, Latin America, and parts of Asia experienced such crashes five times more frequently than U.S. airlines.
