2018 WORST YEAR SINCE 2014 FOR FATAL AIRLINE CRASHES

Searchers sort through debris from the Lion Air crash.

According to Aviation-safety.net, this year has been the worst for fatal airline crashes since 2014 with 16 crashes claiming 555 lives reversing a positive trend of steady improvement.

The worst crash was the loss of the Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX which crashed on October 29 after take-off from Jakarta killing all 189 onboard.

Preliminary reports suggest that the accident was caused by the faulty calibration of an Angle of Attack vane which was replaced just before the fatal flight.

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In 2014 the downward trend in fatal airliner deaths was given a tragic jolt by the loss of two Malaysian Airlines 777s with a combined death toll of 537 people.

Despite the higher number of deaths from airline crashes this year the accident rate continues to decline overall with 4.5 billion passenger flights and 45 million flights this year.

That translates into a fatal accident rate of 1 every 2.80 million flights.

And if an airline has passed the International Air Transport Association’s Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) the fatal accident rate improves by around 75 percent.

The accident that attracted most attention was the loss of the Lion Air 737.

Indonesia’s National Transport Safety Committee’s (KNKT) preliminary report states that Lion Air put the 737 back into service despite it having had problems on earlier flights.

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