Johannesburg : The coronavirus-related slump in global air traffic that has continued in the outgoing year 2021 has been accompanied by a sharp reduction in casualties, according to accident researchers.
“As things stand, we are at 168 fatalities for 2021, which is almost a halving of the numbers compared to 2020 and even 505 below the average of the last 25 years,” Jan-Arwed-Richter of the Hamburg-based Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre (JACDEC).
According to a JACDEC analysis prepared for the February issue of the aviation magazine Aero International and, 30 commercial aircraft were destroyed or irreparably damaged in airline accidents worldwide.
The accident researchers counted a total of 671 accidents and incidents worldwide, many of which occurred with smaller propeller aircraft or on cargo, test, ferry or special flights.
In the US alone, there were four big accidents, but no human casualties. JACDEC cites the crash of a Boeing 737-500 off Indonesia, which killed 62 people on January 9, as the worst accident. The cause of the accident is still under investigation.
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), 2.3 billion passengers were transported worldwide in 2021, and IATA estimates that the industry will lose up to 51.8 billion dollars over the entire year due to the coronavirus-related slump in flight activity.
For 2022, the association expects an increase to 3.4 billion passengers, which would be about the same as in 2014.
By comparison, before the collapse caused by the anti-coronavirus restrictions, the number of passengers carried was still 4.5 billion.
The aviation accident office JACDEC has been registering and analysing accidents and serious incidents in civil aviation for around three decades.
All aircraft weighing more than 5.7 tons or with more than 19 seats are recorded.
