The fatal accident rate for scheduled passenger and cargo flights among the 31 European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) member states (MS) improved in the latest 10-year survey, and in 2011 the fatal accident rate was 0.96 per 10 million flights.1,2
For the decade 2002–2011, there were 1.6 fatal accidents per 10 million flights, the same rate as for North America. As recently as the 2001–2010 period, the EASA MS rate had been 3.3. That was influenced by the exceptionally high rate of 11.7 in 2001. EASA member states are the 27 European Union states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
One fatal accident occurred in EASA MS commercial air transport airplanes in 2011, with six on-board fatalities.3 There were no fatal accidents in the category in 2010. For the 2000–2009 decade, fatal accidents averaged four per year. The number of fatal accidents was as high as five in both 2005 and 2006.
The reduction in the number of fatal accidents does not…
