Taiwan’s civil aviation accident record for transport category airplanes over the 2000–2009 period shows a single fatal accident each in the commercial jet and turboprop categories. Of 34 occurrences1 — accidents and incidents — during the 10 years, the largest number happened in the landing phase of flight. But the two occurrences in the most serious class took place en route. The data were released in a report by the Taiwan Aviation Safety Council (ASC), the official accident investigation body.2
The fatal accident in commercial jet operations was in 2002, and the 2000–2009 fatal accident rate was 0.61 per million departures. For turboprops, the fatal accident also occurred in 2002, and the 10-year fatal accident rate was 1.02 per million departures.3
Based on five-year moving averages4 going back to 1996, the fatal accident rate per million departures has shown improvement except for a spike in the 1998–2002 period. Before 20…
