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The US aviation service Aviation Safety Network (ASN) registered only eight accidents worldwide with larger passenger aircraft in 2020.

As a result, the number of crashes and accidents in air traffic fell last year to the lowest level since modern aviation existed.

Is the corona pandemic the reason because it led to a slump in air traffic?

Not quite.

The real surprise is that the number of flights in 2020 was roughly halved compared to the previous year and thus corresponded to the volume of 1999.

However, around 20 years ago there were 43 major accidents involving passenger aircraft.

If only eight crashes have now been recorded, this is evidence of progress in air traffic safety, say the experts.

According to the counting method of the ASN industry service, there were 23 accidents with civil aircraft with more than 14 seats in 2019, i.e. the year before the corona-related travel restrictions.

288 people were killed.

More fatalities than last year

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In 2020, the low number of eight accidents resulted in a total of 314 fatalities in the aircraft and one fatality on the ground, more human lives than in the previous year.

With 315 deaths, the level was only slightly below the five-year average of 345 aviation deaths annually.

So 2020 was not a record low year in terms of the number of victims.

With over a billion passengers annually, aircraft are still one of the safest means of transport.

For comparison: over 3000 people died in road traffic in Germany alone in 2019.

The 2020 airplane crash statistics are characterized by two major accidents with completely different causes.

The biggest accident on January 8th was the accidental downing of a Boeing belonging to a Ukrainian airline shortly after it took off from Tehran by two Iranian anti-aircraft missiles.

176 people died.

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The second worst accident occurred on May 22nd, when an Airbus from a Pakistani airline scraped across the runway in Karachi because the pilots had forgotten to extend the landing gear.

When attempting to land again, the aircraft then crashed with the damaged engines.

97 people died on board.

Pilots are the greatest source of error

Even if 2020 was an exceptional year in terms of the low number of flights, the number of plane crashes has tended to decrease since the mid-1990s, despite increasing air traffic.

The death toll is also falling.

The sad climax was 1972 with 2365 fatalities.

Individual crashes can significantly influence the statistics of the number of victims.

The two crashes of the Boeing 737 Max model in 2018 and 2019 cost a total of 346 lives.

After the USA recently lifted the flight ban for the model with the new control software, the final flight clearance in Europe is expected shortly.

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Last year, the European aviation safety authority EASA referred to the cockpit crews as a crucial source of error in a study on the causes of crashes.

A report by the authority on the accidents in 2019 literally states: "The most common cause of the accidents is related to the handling of the flight crews with difficult circumstances caused by technical failure or bad weather conditions, including wind shear, during the approach."

Industry experts point out that in the 2020 Corona crisis, airlines tended to shut down their older and therefore less secure models.

This fact can also be seen as a contribution to flight safety.

Engine explosion - giant cargo plane crash-lands

The crash landing is a masterpiece.

A Russian Antonov AN-124 wants to fly from Novosibirsk to Vienna.

When starting, an engine explodes, parts hit the fuselage.

The pilot makes the right decision.

Source: WORLD