No fatal commercial airline accidents involving operators from member states of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) were reported in 2018, despite a surge in fatal commercial airline accidents worldwide, EASA says.
In its Preliminary Safety Overview 2018, released Tuesday, EASA said that one fatal accident in 2018 involved a European commercial airplane operator — the Aug. 4 crash of a Junkers JU-52 sightseeing flight in the Swiss Alps, which killed 20. Although the airplane, which was built in 1939, was being flown on a commercial flight, “it was a unique event, compared with traditional airline operations,” EASA said.
Noting that the JU-52 crash — and the 10 other fatal accidents worldwide with 530 total fatalities — occurred in the year following what was considered the safest in com…
