2017 Saw the Least Number of Airline Accidents in a Decade: Data
Data suggests that 2017 recorded 70 airline accidents in the past decade, with 48 fatalities.
At least 49 people were killed on Monday, 12 March, when a Bangladeshi airliner crashed in cloudy weather as it came in to land at the Nepalese capital's hill-ringed airport, reported Reuters.
71 people were on board the plane arriving from Dhaka when it clipped the fence at Kathmandu and burst into flames.
On 11 February 2018, a Saratov Airlines plane crashed in Russia, southeast of Moscow, killing all 65 passengers and six crew members on board. Same year, on 19 February, an Iran Aseman Airlines crashed on Mount Dena killing all 66 people on board.
With another major passenger airline crash on Monday, 2018 has witnessed close to 250 fatalities already in the first quarter. Data suggests that 2017 recorded the least number of airline accidents in the past decade, with 48 fatalities.
According to International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) data, the number of accidents on scheduled commercial flights on airplanes have fallen from 139 in 2008 to 70 in 2017, while the number of casualties dropped from 523 in 2008 to 48 in 2017.
The rate of accidents on scheduled commercial flights on airplanes also fell from 4.7 in 2008 to 1.93 in 2017.
However, 2014 saw the maximum number of fatalities (911) since 2008.
(With inputs from Reuters and ICAO)
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