Flying Fatalities Are Extremely Rare
Investigations into the cause of last week's deadly Air India plane crash are currently underway, with the cockpit voice recorder in the plane's second black box having now been recovered.
All but one of the 242 people aboard the Air India 171 flight bound for London-Gatwick on June 12 were killed soon after it took off from India's northwestern city of Ahmedabad. At least 29 people on the ground also perished as the plane crashed into the campus of a medical college. Trainee doctors and students who were there at the time rushed to save their colleagues.
Despite the heavy scrutiny Boeing has come under in the past year for the safety issues of its other planes, last week marked the first time a Boeing 787 has crashed in its 16-year history.
As Statista's Anna Fleck reports, according to data published by the World Bank and Our World in Data shows that while these disasters do happen, they are extremely rare and commercial aviation has become far safer over the decades.
In 2023, there were 0.03 fatalities per million passengers, or in other words, three deaths per 100 million.
According to this data, 2023 was the second safest year since records began, following only after 2017 when 0.01 deaths per million passengers were recorded.
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Indian investigators have successfully retrieved data from the black boxes of a Boeing plane, after it crashed in one of the deadliest air disasters in decades, the government said yesterday. All but one of the 242 people on board the Air India flight were killed on June 12 when the jet crashed in the western city of Ahmedabad, where at least 19 others were left dead. Two weeks after the disaster, the civil aviation ministry said investigators have started 'the data extraction process' from the plane's cockpit voice and flight data recorders. 'The analysis... is underway. These efforts aim to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the accident and identify contributing factors to enhance aviation safety and prevent future occurrences,' a ministry statement said. The two black boxes were found within days of the crash, but were only flown to the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau in New Delhi on Tuesday. One of the victims' relatives said they were waiting for answers. 'For now, all we know is the plane took off and then fell. How? Why? Nobody knows. And we want to know. We deserve to know,' said Imtiyaz Ali, whose brother was on the plane with his wife and two children. 'I refuse to believe that our aviation sector is this bad that we still don't have even a slight indication about what went wrong,' he told AFP on Wednesday. Air India said last week that the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was 'well-maintained' and that the pilots were accomplished flyers.
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Aviation regulator orders Air India to remove officials
New Delhi's civil aviation regulator has ordered Air India to remove three officials from their roles over "systemic failures", according to a directive seen by AFP Saturday, as the carrier comes under scrutiny after a deadly crash. The instruction from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) did not detail whether it was linked to the June 12 crash in Ahmedabad, which killed all but one of the 242 people on board. At least 38 others on the ground were killed. The DGCA directive noted that the airline's voluntary disclosures "point to systemic failures in crew scheduling, compliance monitoring, and internal accountability". "Of particular concern is the absence of strict disciplinary measures against key officials directly responsible for these operational lapses," said the order, which was issued on Friday. "These officials have been involved in serious and repeated lapses," it said. The regulator has directed Air India to remove three officials named in the order "from all roles and responsibilities related to crew scheduling", take disciplinary action, and report on steps taken within 10 days. Future violations could also result in "licence suspension". The airline said on Saturday it had implemented the order. "Air India is committed to ensuring that there is total adherence to safety protocols and standard practices," it said in a statement. Investigators are attempting to find out what caused the airline's London-bound plane to hurtle to the ground moments after takeoff in Ahmedabad. Air India said on Thursday that the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane was "well-maintained" and that the pilots were accomplished flyers. The cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder have been recovered from the crash site.
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Flying Fatalities Are Extremely Rare
Investigations into the cause of last week's deadly Air India plane crash are currently underway, with the cockpit voice recorder in the plane's second black box having now been recovered. All but one of the 242 people aboard the Air India 171 flight bound for London-Gatwick on June 12 were killed soon after it took off from India's northwestern city of Ahmedabad. At least 29 people on the ground also perished as the plane crashed into the campus of a medical college. Trainee doctors and students who were there at the time rushed to save their colleagues. Despite the heavy scrutiny Boeing has come under in the past year for the safety issues of its other planes, last week marked the first time a Boeing 787 has crashed in its 16-year history. As Statista's Anna Fleck reports, according to data published by the World Bank and Our World in Data shows that while these disasters do happen, they are extremely rare and commercial aviation has become far safer over the decades. In 2023, there were 0.03 fatalities per million passengers, or in other words, three deaths per 100 million. According to this data, 2023 was the second safest year since records began, following only after 2017 when 0.01 deaths per million passengers were recorded.
