The trend of an impressive but non-improving safety record continued in 2010.
The accident rate for commercial jets in 2010 was 0.54 major accidents per million departures. That was almost identical to the average rate of 0.55 for the previous five years and slightly better than the 0.57 rate for the previous decade. Five of the 19 major commercial jet accidents — two controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) accidents, two loss of control (LOC) accidents and one runway excursion accident — accounted for 96 percent of the fatalities.
The business jet fleet, which normally averages about 10 major accidents a year, had a good year, with only eight major accidents. The commercial turboprop fleet had its best year ever in terms of number of major accidents, but CFIT accidents continue to dominate the turboprop accident and fatality numbers.
Approximately 6 percent of the turbojet fleet is Eastern-built, while 20 percent of the turboprop fleet is Eastern-built. The commercial tur…
