ICAO PUBLISHES 2016 SAFETY REPORT

The Annual ICAO Safety Report provides updates on safety indicators, including accidents and related risk factors.
Improving the safety of the global air transport system is ICAO’s guiding and most fundamental strategic objective. The Organization works constantly to address and enhance global aviation safety through coordinated activities and targets outlined in its Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP).

The GASP initiatives are monitored by ICAO’s appraisal of global and regional aviation safety metrics on the basis of established risk management principles — a core component of contemporary State Safety Programmes (SSP) and Safety Management Systems (SMS). In all of its coordinated safety activities, ICAO strives to achieve a balance between assessed risk and the requirements of practical, achievable and effective risk mitigation strategies.

 

Accident statistics for the last five years show a decrease in both the number of accidents as well as the accident rate.

In 2016 the downward trend in the number of accidents continued with 75 accidents reported by States representing a 18 per cent decrease from 2015.

Over the same period there was in increase in scheduled commercial departures which result in a global accident rate of 2.1 accidents per million departures, down by 25 per cent from the 2015 rate of 2.8 accidents per million departures.

Commercial air transport accidents in 2016 resulted in 182 fatalities, which is a return to a similar level as 2013 when there were 173 fatalities.

The two intervening years had seen a spike in fatalities due to a number of acts of unlawful interference that resulted in a large number of casualties.

At the 39th Session of the ICAO Assembly in October 2016 the ICAO Council adopted a number of resolutions related to acts of unlawful interference, including:

  • Urging States to support the Convention on the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Relating to International Civil Aviation (Beijing Convention of 2010) and the Protocol Supplementary to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft (Beijing Protocol of 2010.)
  • Promulgating ICAO policies related to the safeguarding of international civil aviation against acts of unlawful interference.

Full report here: https://www.icao.int/safety/Documents/ICAO_SR_2017_18072017.pdf