After suffering an average of 3.4 commercial air transport fatal accidents per year from 2001 through 2010, member states of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) saw just one fatal accident in each of the past two years involving European-operated airplanes of more than 2,250 kg (4,960 lb) maximum takeoff mass (MTOM), according to the recently released EASA Annual Safety Review 2012 (Table 1). The total number of commercial air transport (CAT) airplane accidents per year, however, increased from an average of 25.2 annually during the 2001–2010 period, to 30 accidents in 2011 and 34 in 2012, according to the report, which defines EASA member states (EASA MS) as the 27 European Union member states plus Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
Onboard fatalities declined from an average of 77.8 per year in 2001–2010 to six in 2011 and none last year as 2012’s lone fatality occurred when a ground operator got trapped between an aircraft baggage door and a baggage loader …
