Runway/taxiway excursions were the most common commercial aviation accident type in 2017, and although none of the accidents were fatal, runway safety generally continues to be a focus of the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Safety and Flight Operations team, according to the recently published IATA Safety Report 2017.
IATA said there were six fatal commercial airline accidents worldwide in 2017 that resulted in the deaths of 19 passengers and crewmembers. None of the six fatal accidents involved a passenger jet. Five of the fatal accidents involved turboprop aircraft and one involved a cargo jet: the Jan. 16, 2017, crash of a MyCARGO Airlines Boeing 747-400 freighter, which killed 35 people on the ground as well as all four crewmembers.
“Globally, the 2017 fatal accident rate was the equivalent of one fatal accident for every 6.7 million flights. If we look at it another way, using fatality risk, on average, a person would have to travel by air every d…
