The heartbreaking loss of Air India flight AI171 from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick is an example of an extremely rare event: a large jet crashing on an intercontinental air route.
Many prospective travellers will see the images of the Indian tragedy, and three other passenger jet crashes in the past six months, and conclude that aviation is becoming more dangerous.
Yet without diminishing these disasters and the devastating human toll, this remains the safest decade in aviation history.
Such is the obsession with safety among aviation professionals that many risks have been engineered out. The last fatal accident involving a UK passenger jet was in the 1980s.
In 2023, accidents and fatalities were at a record low – with no scheduled passenger jets involved in fatal crashes.
In the final week of 2024, more than 200 people lost their lives in two separate incidents: the Christmas Day crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer E190, followed four days by the loss four days later of a Jeju Air Boeing 737 on arrival at Muan in South Korea.
In January an American Airlines regional jet collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington DC, taking the lives of all 67 on board.
Attention will also be focused on the Boeing safety culture. Shocking shortcomings at the plane manufacturer were exposed in the aftermath of two fatal crashes of the Boeing 737 Max.
Design flaws led to the temporary grounding of the aircraft worldwide, and in 2024 another incident – in which a door plug burst open at 16,000 feet – triggered further investigations.
This is the first fatal incident involving the 787. Soon after it entered service in in 2011, concerns over the fire risk from lithium batteries led to a temporary grounding. There is no indication that the crash was connected with technical issues on board the aircraft.
More than 1,000 Boeing 787 aircraft are in service with dozens of international airlines, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic – both of which have exemplary safety records.
As news emerged of the tragedy in India, the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) was publishing its Annual Safety Review for 2024.
In the report, Crispin Orr, the chief inspector, said: “Major accidents in Japan, Brazil, Kazakhstan, and the Republic of Korea in 2024 serve as a sobering reminder that safety must never be taken for granted.
“Thorough investigations into accidents and serious incidents continue to be needed to uncover remaining vulnerabilities.”
But he also pointed out: “Commercial aviation remains one of the safest forms of public transport, with global accident rates continuing their long-term decline.”
This is particularly relevant at a time when the terrible death toll on the roads of India shows no sign of decline; on a typical day, sadly nearly 500 people lose their lives in traffic accidents.
