Air safety improves in 2009: IATA

India witnessed only one air accident -- the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy and four others -- this year, a period that saw airlines improve their safety record, says International Air Transport Association.

Globally, there were 73 accidents as of November 30 compared to 109 a year ago. "If you were to fly once per day, it would take 4,807 years for an individual to be involved in an accident," IATA's senior vice president (safety) Gunther Matschnigg told PTI in Geneva.

"This is the best accident rate ever recorded." Though the number of fatal accidents was reduced by 30 per cent over 2008, the total fatalities this year were more than last year, he said.

As on November 30, there were 16 fatal accidents against 23 in 2008, but the total number of deaths was 680 compared with 502 last year.

Noting that runway excursions were a major cause of accidents, he said out of the 73 accidents recorded this year, 19 were due to runway excursions or when airplanes skid out of runway.

Between 2004 and 2008, 139 out of 501 total accidents or about 28 per cent were runway excursions. In the Asia-Pacific region, there were three accidents, including a fatal one that involved aircraft of Lion Air, Aviastar Mandiri (both Indonesian carriers) and Myanma Airways of Myanmar.

Not a single Indian carrier was involved in accidents where fatalities and hull losses occur, the data showed.

As of November 2009, industry rate of accidents was lower compared to 2008 (0.57 versus 0.81) and there was one accident per 1.75 million flights compared with one accident per 1.2 million flights in 2008.

Matschnigg said the industry's hull loss rate was lower than 2008. A hull loss is an accident in which the aircraft is destroyed or substantially damaged and is not subsequently repaired for whatever reason, including a financial decision of the owner.

The member airlines of IATA performed better than the global industry rate, recording an accident per 1.85 million flights, the senior IATA officer said.

Observing that the IATA's mandatory safety audits were having a positive impact on reducing the accident rates, he said the global airlines body has evolved a new programme called 'Fatigue Risk Management Systems' which is used to manage flight crew fatigue.

This programme is specially geared to meet the fatigue mitigation requirements of crew for non-stop long-haul flights of 14 to 18 hours, he said.

The IATA already carries out the IATA Operational Safety Auditing and IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operations with airlines and airport operators across the globe, with all 232 IATA members being IOSA registered.