Topping the List

Runway and taxiway excursion accidents were more frequent among air transport airplanes worldwide in 2018 than any other type of accident, with a total of 15 accidents, including two fatal accidents that resulted in 52 deaths, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) says (Figure 1).¹

In its Safety Report 2018, released in April, IATA said that more fatalities (372)¹ were associated with loss of control–in flight (LOC-I) accidents than any other accident category. In addition, of all fatal accidents, more were LOC-I accidents (3) than any other category. The three fatal LOC-I accidents accounted for more than one-quarter of all transport airplane accidents in 2018, and for the 372 fatalities, which represented 71 percent of total fatalities, the report said.