2009 aviation 2nd-safest year in history

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced the aviation safety performance for 2009 showing that the year’s accident rate for Western-built jet aircraft as the second lowest in aviation history.

The 2009 global accident rate (measured in hull losses per million flights) was 0.71. That is equal to one accident for every 1.4 million flights. This is a significant improvement of the 0.81 rate recorded in 2008 (one accident for 1.2 million flights), IATA said.

The 2009 rate was the second lowest in aviation history, just above the 2006 rate of 0.65. Compared to 10 years ago, the accident rate has been cut 36 per cent from the rate recorded in 2000.