Airline death total is highest 2009
The number of people killed in passenger airline crashes in the first six months of 2009 was the highest January-June total since 2002, figures out yesterday showed.
Two recent Airbus crashes, including the mid-Atlantic Air France disaster, swelled the 2009 half-year fatality figure to 499, according to statistics from Flight International magazine.
This compared with 175 deaths in the first six months of 2008 and was well above the half-yearly average of 344 for this decade.
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The years 2001-10 could now become the first decade since the Second World War when global airline accident rates did not show an improvement compared with the previous decade, said Flight International's operations and safety editor David Learmount.
All 228 people aboard the Air France Airbus A330, including British and Irish nationals, were killed in the crash on June 1 this year, while there was only one survivor of the Yemen Airlines Airbus A310 crash in the Indian Ocean on June 30, which claimed 154 lives.
Taking into account the number of planes on which there were deaths rather than the actual number of fatalities, there were 13 fatal airline accidents in the first six months of this year compared with 18 in January-June last year.
The two worst half-year figures for deaths in recent years were in 2000 (552 deaths) and 2002 (716 deaths).
The number of people killed in passenger airline crashes in the first six months of 2009 was the highest January-June total since 2002, figures out yesterday showed.
Two recent Airbus crashes, including the mid-Atlantic Air France disaster, swelled the 2009 half-year fatality figure to 499, according to statistics from Flight International magazine.
This compared with 175 deaths in the first six months of 2008 and was well above the half-yearly average of 344 for this decade.
advertisement
The years 2001-10 could now become the first decade since the Second World War when global airline accident rates did not show an improvement compared with the previous decade, said Flight International's operations and safety editor David Learmount.
All 228 people aboard the Air France Airbus A330, including British and Irish nationals, were killed in the crash on June 1 this year, while there was only one survivor of the Yemen Airlines Airbus A310 crash in the Indian Ocean on June 30, which claimed 154 lives.
Taking into account the number of planes on which there were deaths rather than the actual number of fatalities, there were 13 fatal airline accidents in the first six months of this year compared with 18 in January-June last year.
The two worst half-year figures for deaths in recent years were in 2000 (552 deaths) and 2002 (716 deaths).
