MOSCOW. April 15 (Interfax) - The number of civil aviation incidents in Russia was the lowest since 2014 in 2023, the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) said in a report.
The IAC reported 21 aviation incidents, including 11 crashes with 20 fatalities last year.
Most aviation incidents of the past ten years happened in 2016: there were 52 incidents that year, including 23 crashes that claimed 59 lives. The highest number of fatalities, 128, was seen in 2018.
The statistics does not include events "caused by illegal interference in civil aviation performance," the IAC said. The report does not provide a relative indicator of flight safety in Russia, i.e. the number of aviation incidents per 1 million flights.
According to the Russian Transport Ministry, Russia was operating 1,285 aircraft, including 1,160 passenger aircraft, as of late March 2024. The number of flights performed last year is not reported either.
All 12 members of the Interstate Civil Aviation Agreement (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine) reported 26 aviation incidents last year, or 1.5 times less than in 2022, the IAC said, adding that was the best indicator since 2006. However, "the number of flights significantly decreased in 2023 due to closure of certain international routes and airports in certain member states," the report said. Other flight safety indicators did not improve year-on-year: 15 crashes occurred in both years, and the number of fatalities grew from 28 to 31, it said.
Twelve member states reported 14 commercial aviation incidents last year, including nine crashes that killed 22 people, and 12 general aviation incidents, including six crashes with nine fatalities. The report said the IAC could not assess relative flight safety in general aviation. Without taking into account such data, the incident rate stood at 11.5 per 1 million flights in 2023, including 7.4 crashes. The first indicator was the best since 2019, the second "virtually did not change and remained on the level of the past five years," the report said.
Airlines of member states did not report incidents involving aircraft with a takeoff mass larger than 5,700 kilograms in 2023. There were seven incidents with light and superlight aircraft, including three crashes that killed five people. Seven incidents with helicopters were recorded, including six crashes that killed 17. The rest of incidents happened in general aviation. About 80% of all incidents were caused by "the human factor," the IAC said.