IATA: Global Accident Rate Reaches New Low
2011 proved the safest year yet for Western commercial jets.
North Asian carriers suffered no hull losses last year. (Photo: Boeing)
North Asian carriers suffered no hull losses last year. (Photo: Boeing)

Statistics published last week by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) show that Western jets registered their lowest accident rates in history in 2011, besting their previous record set just one year earlier. The 2011 global accident rate (measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built jets) finished at 0.37, the equivalent of one accident every 2.7 million flights, amounting to a 39-percent improvement over 2010, when the accident rate of 0.61 resulted from one accident for every 1.6 million flights.