Air safety back in the spotlight

Air safety is back in the international spotlight following the recent spate of accidents around the world – from Switzerland, to Côte d’Ivoire, to the USA. In Africa the loss of a Kenya Airways Airbus A310-300ER just after take-off from Abidjan airport in January, and an EgyptAir Boeing 767-300ER shortly after take-off from New York, last October, have proved particularly traumatic due to the large loss of lives involved. Until the official investigations are completed, it would be wrong to allocate blame for either of these accidents. 

According to the International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Association (IFALPA), the rate of commercial airline accidents is expected to fall in coming years. It adds, however, that the number of flights will have increased to such an extent that the annual average number of fatal accidents could more than double by 2007, from the current 22 to about 50 – almost one a week. 

IFALPA President Ted Murphy says that, statistically, there are two fatal accidents per million flights in Africa and more than one accident per million flights in Asia, the ratio in Europe and North America, he adds, is 0.30 and 0.28 accidents per million flights, respectively. 

Fortunately, in Africa today, there is an increased determination at the highest Government levels to take the actions necessary to improve aviation safety on the continent. But these actions must be accelerated.  As part of this process urgent attention needs to be given to the upgrading and pooling of Search and Rescue facilities in Africa.