The total number of commercial airline accidents, fatal accidents and associated fatalities worldwide declined in 2020 from 2019, but the accident rate increased, according to new data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
IATA’s 2020 Safety Report, published in late March, said 38 accidents were reported in 2020, a year in which the number of flights was only about half that of in recent years because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In comparison, 52 accidents were reported in 2019. Fatal accidents decreased to five in 2020, down from eight the previous year, and the number of fatalities fell from 240 in 2019 to 132 in 2020.
The total accident rate in 2020 was 1.71 per 1 million flights, higher than both the 2019 rate of 1.11 per million flights and the 2016‒2020 average rate of 1.38 per million.
IATA’s data placed the fatality risk of flying at 0.13, meaning that a person would need to travel by air daily for 461 years before…
