Safety Report Executive Summary

Although the COVID-19 pandemic continued to test the industry in 2022, airlines saw a surge in air travel as most governments lifted or eased travel restrictions during the year. Just over 32 million flights were operated in 2022, an increase of 25% compared to 2021, but still 31% below the 2019 figure.

As traffic returns to pre-COVID levels it is vital that the aviation community continues to work together to improve safety levels globally. Aviation is so safe that even one accident can skew the accident rate for a given year. This is particularly the case when flight operations are reduced. 2022 safety performance was an example of this.

2021 vs 2022 accident data

Last year’s accident rate, at 1.21 accident per million sectors, was higher than the accident rate of 1.13 reported in 2021, but lower than the five-year (2018-2022) rolling average of 1.26. There were 39 accidents from commercial operations worldwide in 2022 versus 29 accidents in 2021, but this was down compared to the five-year average of 43. Five fatal accidents occurred in 2022, reduced from seven in 2021. However, the number of fatalities rose to 158 from 121 in 2021. For the five-years 2018-2022 the average was seven accidents and 231 fatalities. The industry fatality risk improved (0.23 in 2021 down to 0.11 in 2022).

The effectiveness of an organization’s safety management systems in preventing a future accident depends to a very large degree on the ability to learn from past accidents. That in turn is subject to the timely availability of comprehensive, widely disseminated accident investigation reports. Such reports are essential to the overall risk management process in aviation. We urge states to do their part by following the guidance in ICAO Annex 13 for issuance of timely and complete accident reports.

Data is a core driver of evidence-based decision-making and allows IATA, working with other safety stakeholders, to identify potential safety issues and emerging trends. This interactive safety report has been developed and structured in a way to allow such identification and propose recommendations that can help to reduce the likelihood of an accident and increase the level of safety.

Fatal Accidents

Looking at the five fatal accidents in 2022:

• The distribution is as follows:
  • Other End State[1] (3) with 138 fatalities
  • Off Runway Touchdown (1) with 19 fatalities
  • Runway Excursions (1) with one fatality
• Four of the 5 accidents involved turboprop aircraft

Non-fatal Accidents

Looking at the non-fatal accidents, 8 were classified as Landing Gear, followed by Runway Excursion (6) and Tail Strike (6).

• There were 3 accidents involving fatalities on the ground.
  • In an accident at Conakry airport, Guinea, a motorcycle entered the runway as the aircraft was landing and collided with the aircraft. Both people on the motorcycle died.
  • In another accident, a firefighting vehicle entered the runway at Lima airport in Peru and collided with an aircraft that was taking off, resulting in the deaths of two firefighters who were on the fire vehicle.
  • A third accident occurred in Montgomery, AL, USA, when an airline ground worker was ingested into the engine of an aircraft shortly after the aircraft arrived at the gate but before both engines were shut down.

Regional Overview

• Africa (AFI) had the highest accident rate with 8.70 accidents per million sectors in 2022. This was up from 5.66 per million sectors in 2021 and was also above the 5-year average of 5.68 accidents per million sectors.
• The industry witnessed a 50% reduction in the number of accidents involving Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) operators, from 4 accidents in 2021 to 2 in 2022, neither of which involved fatalities. The region experienced 3 fatal accidents in 2021. The fatality risk improved to 0.00 from 2.29 in 2021. It is worth noting that CIS sectors may undergo larger revisions than normal once actual flown sectors become available – this will affect accident rate as well as fatality risk calculation
• 77% of the commercial air transport accidents in 2022 involved passenger flights.
• IATA membership and IOSA accreditation vs. non-IATA members and Non-IOSA Carriers, continued a strong correlation with improved safety performance. The accident rate for IOSA-registered carriers in 2022 was lower than the rate for non- IOSA carriers. (0.70 vs 2.82).

 Safety can be best achieved by working together. I would like to thank the Accident Classification Task Force (ACTF), the Operations Advisory Council (OAC), the Safety Group (SG), the Cabin Operations Safety Task Force (COSTF), and all IATA staff involved for their cooperation and expertise, essential for the creation of this report.

[1] The Other End State is used where:

▪ Information available at the ACTF meeting was not enough to determine the accident end state. For example:
‒ Aircraft is missing,
‒ The investigation is still ongoing or report not available and the ACTF is unable to assign an end state classification
▪ The End State does not fit into other categories

I’m delighted to launch the new online format of the IATA Safety Report (ISR) which provides readers with an interactive view of the accidents captured within it. By enabling users to drill down into the detail of specific events to get a deeper understanding, our intention is that the ISR provides the platform to go beyond the events themselves to the precursors that caused them.

The ISR has supported the analysis of events by IATA. Additionally, in coordination with the IATA Operations Advisory Council (OAC) and associated working groups and task forces, it has allowed us to identify from the causal factors where our activities will be focused in 2023 to deliver safety improvement programs and support the industry in maintaining its reputation as an ‘ultrasafe’ form of mass transport.

Main Focus

Specifically, we will concentrate our activities in the following areas and continue to identify opportunities to deliver initiatives that provide continuous improvement:

• ICAO Annex 13 clearly defines the timelines for the publication of accident investigation reports but, unfortunately, these aren’t always adhered to by the State of Occurrence and/or the detail provided within them is insufficient to draw conclusions to prevent the reoccurrence of accidents and serious incidents. IATA advocates for the wider, and timely, publication of quality reports and has made this a priority in 2023.
• As a High-Risk Category (HRC), controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) has been significantly mitigated by the introduction of Ground Proximity Warning Systems (GPWS). However, GPWS is only effective when the database of obstacles stored within it is accurate and remains updated. IATA has successfully campaigned for more frequent database update cycles, and we will continue this activity in 2023.
• Traffic Collision and Avoidance Systems (TCAS) have also provided significant safety improvements against the HRC of mid-air collision with the last accident between two commercial aircraft occurring over 20 years ago. However, where TCAS avoidance maneuvers occur more frequently, IATA will continue to focus on supporting the reduction of these hotspots.
• Runway safety remains an issue with numerous accidents and serious incidents occurring in this environment. IATA will continue to look at, and coordinate activities, relating to a number of precursors to runways events including aircraft performance, unstable approaches, and hard landings.

Beyond these activities, IATA remains focused on the three pillars of the IATA Safety Strategy, available here, relating to Safety Leadership; Safety Risk; and Safety Connect.

The year 2022 saw the industry recovery accelerate toward a normal (i.e. pre-COVID) level of operations. However, the airline industry is still 31% below 2019 operations, with Asia-Pacific lagging behind the other regions. Turning to safety, the good news is that the industry saw continued improvement in most key metrics compared to the five-year performance, although there was backsliding in a handful of areas versus 2021.

The global fatal accident rate improved to 0.16 per million sectors in 2022 from 0.27 million in 2021 and ahead of the five-year (2018-2022) fatal accident rate of 0.20. The fatality risk, meanwhile, improved to 0.11 from 0.23 in 2021 and against the five-year average of 0.13.

The majority of the fatalities in 2022 (138 out of the total 158) have yet to be classified. This is a reminder to the accident investigation authorities to release prompt and accurate investigation reports, according to ICAO Annex 13, In the interest of accident prevention, the State conducting the investigation of an accident or incident shall make the final report publicly available as soon as possible and, if possible, within 12 months.

Accident Categories

IATA’s Accident Classification Task Force (ACTF) has published recommendations related to the common accident categories and precursors.

Six accidents were classified as Runway Excursions (RE) in 2022. Analyzing the data from the last 10 years (2013-2022). RE is the most frequent accident category with 125 accidents, and the third most frequent cause of fatal accidents. The most common contributing factors to RE are long/floated/bounced landing and/or landing from an unstable approach. The continuation of approaches where the aircraft is in an unstable condition is an area of concern which operators and regulators should analyze further. In this document you will find comprehensive recommendations to prevent RE accidents. Furthermore, IATA has recently published recommendations to improve the industry’s unstable approach performance.

Similar to RE, six accidents were classified as Tail Strikes. According to IATA’s database, there were 47 accidents classified as Tail Strikes from 2013 to 2022. In 2022 this type of accident represented 15% of the total number of accidents. Some contributing factors to tail strikes include unstable approach and/or arriving at the runway in a higher energy state resulting in long or bounced landings and mishandling of crosswinds, gusty winds and turbulence.

During 2022, no specific fatal accident has been associated with Loss of Control In-flight (LOC-I) or Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT); however, three accidents involving 138 fatalities haven’t received an end state yet. This report includes recommendations related to LOC-I which has been the greatest factor leading to fatalities in the last ten years and CFIT which has been the second-most frequent cause of fatal accidents.

The ACTF has invested a considerable amount of time and effort presenting these statistics and recommendations. I would like to give a big thank you to all the members of the ACTF, a selected group of aviation safety professionals from member airlines, aircraft manufacturers, international organizations, pilot associations, and the IATA team, who make this report possible by providing advice, expertise and administrative support.