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African airlines improve accident rate

For a third consecutive year, airlines in sub-Saharan Africa experienced zero jet hull losses and zero fatalities in jet operations, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata).

The all accident rate was 2.71, a significant improvement over the rate of 6.80 for the previous five years.

According to Iata, Africa was the only region to see a decline in the all-accident rate compared to 2017. However, the region experienced 2 fatal turboprop accidents, neither of which involved a scheduled passenger flight.

"We continue to progress in the region toward world-class levels of safety. But, despite improvement there is still a gap to cover in the safety performance of the continent's turboprop fleet," said Alexandre de Juniac, Iata's director general and CEO.  

Global standards such as the Iata Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) are making a difference. Counting all accidents, the performance of African airlines on the IOSA registry was more than twice as good as non-IOSA airlines in the region.

"In parallel, African governments must accelerate the implementation of ICAO's safety-related standards and recommended practices (Sarps). As of year-end 2017, only 26 African countries had at least 60% Sarps implementation. They also should incorporate IOSA into their safety oversight systems," said De Juniac.

Data-driven approach to identifying current and emerging risks

Iata's Global Aviation Data Management (GADM) programme is the world's most diverse aviation data exchange programme, according to the association.

Data captured in GADM databases comprises accident and incident reports, ground damage occurrences and flight data from more than 470 different industry participants. “

"Through GADM, we are using information from the more than 100 000 flights that operate safely every day to identify and address operational issues before they can become potential risks," said De Juniac.

One hazard is inflight turbulence. As passenger and cabin crew injuries related to in-flight turbulence climb, Iata sees a need to address this increasing safety risk.

In response, Iata has launched Turbulence Aware, a global platform for sharing automated turbulence reports in real time. Operational trials with a number of airlines are being conducted this year, with full launch planned for 2020.

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