The accident rate for the world’s commercial airline industry declined in 2017 to 1.08 accidents per million flights, down from the previous year’s rate of 1.68 and well below the average rate of 2.01 for the five-year period from 2012 through 2016, according to new data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
In a report released in late February, IATA said commercial airliners were involved in six fatal accidents in 2017 that killed a total of 19 passengers and crewmembers. In comparison, in 2016, there were nine fatal accidents and 202 fatalities (Table 1), 2017 Safety Performance and in 2012–2016, commercial jet airliners were involved in an average of 10.8 fatal accidents with 315 fatalities per year, the report said.
