Global airline accident analysis for 2008 by FlightGlobal

David Learmount at FlightGlobal has done an excellent analysis of the Global airline accidents. In the last ten years, 2008 is the second lowest, after 2004, in terms of fatalities.

Simple figures paint the picture: in 2003 there were 27 fatal airline accidents causing 702 deaths, and in 2008 there were 34 fatal accidents and 583 deaths. In the interim years the figures show that the trend for fatal accident numbers and the fatalities total are tracking the horizontal almost precisely. Although the number of deaths last year was relatively low at 583, the best result in the past decade was 466 in 2004.

One particular section regarding a breakdown in trust between pilots and their airlines is disconcerting.

The pilots at American Airlines and US Airways have both, independently, suspended their participation in their respective carrier's aviation safety action programme (ASAP), a voluntary incident reporting scheme intended to encourage the reporting of mishaps of all kinds that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.

FlightGlobal's complete list of all accident for 2008, in PDF format, can be downloaded here.