GLOBAL AVIATION INDUSTRY RECORDS LOWEST ACCIDENT RATE IN 2010

LAGOS - Global aviation industry, for the time first in flying history, recorded the lowest accident rate in 2010, with Africa recording 7.41 per cent lower that it did in 2009, the International Air Transport Association, IATA, has said.

IATA Director-General, Giovanni Bisignani, who disclosed this while reeling out the performance of the industry in 2010, said the year recorded global accident rate (measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built aircraft) of 0.61 per cent compared to the 7.1 per cent for 2009.

According to him, this is equal to one accident for every 1.6 million flights.

'The 2010 rate was the lowest in aviation history, just below the 2006 rate of 0.65. Compared to 10 years ago, the accident rate has been cut 42 per cent from the rate recorded in 2001.

A hull loss is an accident in which the aircraft is destroyed or substantially damaged and is not subsequently repaired.

'Safety is the number one priority. Achieving the lowest accident rate in the history of aviation shows that this commitment is bearing results.'