The Aviation Safety Network today released the 2011 airliner accident statistics showing a total of 507 airliner accident fatalities, as a result of 28 fatal multi-engine airliner accidents.
The year 2011 was a very safe year for civil aviation, Aviation Safety Network data show. The second safest year by number of fatalities and the third safest year by number of accidents. Also, 2011 marked the longest period without a fatal airliner accident in modern aviation history. This record period now stands at 80 days and counting (by January 1).
Over the year 2011 the Aviation Safety Network recorded a total of 28 fatal airliner accidents, resulting in 507 fatalities and 14 ground fatalities. The number of fatalities is lower than the ten-year average of 764 fatalities.
The worst accident happened on January 9, 2011 when an Iran Air Boeing 727 crashed while on approach to Orumiyeh, Iran, killing 77.
The number of accidents involving passenger flights was relatively high with nineteen accidents as compared to the ten-year average of 16 accidents.
Seven out of 28 accident airplanes were operated by airlines on the E.U. “black list” as opposed to six out of 29 the year before. The E.U. added a total of nine airlines to the “black list” and removed three airlines based on improved safety records.
In 2011 Africa showed a continuing decline in accidents: 14% of all fatal airliner accidents happened in Africa. Although this is still out of sync compared to the fact that the continent only accounts for approximately 3 percent of all world aircraft departures. Russia suffered a very bad year with six fatal accidents.
The Aviation Safety Network is an independent organisation located in the Netherlands. Founded in 1996. It has the aim to provide everyone with a (professional) interest in aviation with up-to-date, complete and reliable authoritative information on airliner accidents and safety issues. ASN is an exclusive service of the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF). The figures have been compiled using the airliner accident database of the Aviation Safety Network, the Internet leader in aviation safety information. The Aviation Safety Network uses information from authoritative and official sources.
More information:
http://aviation-safety.net/database/year.php?year=2011
Harro Ranter
the Aviation Safety Network
http://aviation-safety.net/
e-mail: hr@aviation-safety.net
Aviation Safety Network's News 
Thanks for the good work ASN does in compiling these statistics. I read with interest the coverage over at FlightGlobal, which had a bit of a different take on 2011, with an article headlined “Airline fatal accident numbers climb in 2011”.
I’ve posted some observations and questions on David Learmont’s blog post http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/learmount/2012/01/to-an-even-greater-degree-than.html although as yet it hasn’t appeared online (I’m assuming it is still in the queue to be approved), and I would like to post it here too:
It is interesting to note the different methodologies used by Flight ( http://www.flightglobal.com/Features/safety-review-2011/fatal-accidents/ ) and by the Aviation Safety Network ( http://aviation-safety.net/database/year.php?year+2011 ) yields different pictures. Flight talks of 2011 showing on increase in fatal accidents compared to 2010 (32 vs 26), while ASN talks of 2011 showing a reduction in fatal accidents compared to 2010 (28 vs 29). Digging into the numbers for 2011, Flight has counted 6 single-engine aircraft accidents, whereas ASN only counts multi-engine aircraft where the base model is certified for 13 or more passengers. This accounts for 6 accidents recorded by Flight but not by ASN (4 July Missinippi Airlines Cessna 208B, 23 September Servant Air DHC-3, 4 October Air Tindi Cessna 208B, 2 September Grant Aviation Cessna 208B, 9 September Susi Air Cessna 208B, 23 November Susi Air Cessna 208B). It also seems Flight has not counted three accidents which were counted by ASN: 05 March VASO Antonov 148, 08 March Desert Sand Aircraft Leasing DHC-6, 1 April Fugro Aviation CASA C212. Presumably these weren’t by Flight due to the test/air work nature of the flights? Also, while Flight said it recorded 32 fatal airline accidents, the published list only contains 31 (4 scheduled passenger, 18 non-scheduled passenger, 9 non-passenger). I don’t know whether there was one left out by mistake, or if the number should be 31 rather than 32.
I’d be interested to hear some comments on the differing methodologies, and why one or the other may or may not be more relevant to someone trying to form an overall view of the safety picture for 2011. In particular, I’m wondering whether the capture of the 5 Cessna 206B and 1 DHC-3 accidents (as done by Flight) or the exclusion of single-engine aircraft accidents (as done by ASN) paints an accurate picture. I have asked on David Learmont’s blog what the lower limit for inclusion in their statistics was, because I notice three accidents involving large single-engine aircraft were not included there: the 31 March Black Sheep Aviation DHC-3 accident in Canada, the 22 August Sayanian Cedar An-2 accident in Russia, and the 14 October Moremi Air Cessna 208B accident in Botswana.
Nick
Thanks for your comment, Nick. Indeed, most organizations that compile aircraft accident statistics come up with different figures: ASN, Flight, IATA etc. It all depends on the selection criteria, just like you indicate in your comment.
One of the reasons for selecting accidents based on our definition of an “airliner” is that we want to be sure that we are complete, also for older periods of time. This enables us to make a fair and correct comparison over time.
In the end it should not make a huge difference which criteria you use, since the trends should be roughly similar. Interestingly, the short term trend (2010-2011) seems to differ between Flight’s and ASN’s data.
Perhaps we can conclude that, based on our data, aviation has become safer for the “larger” airliner segment, but that there is an increase in smaller aircraft accidents in the “air taxi” segment.
Harro.