The German research Bureau JACDEC, which deals with the investigation of accidents on air transport, presented its new rating of the 60 safest airlines in the world, which the organization publishes since 1973. The Russian carriers included in the rating are: Transaero – for 20 years of flying there was not a single serious incident with the airline’s aircraft, the company took 10th place in the rating ahead of such European carriers as Lufthansa, Alitalia, Air France and KLM; and Aeroflot – 35th place.
The leaders of the rating are seven airlines that have flown more than 30 years without incidents. The safest airline is Australian Qantas, founded in 1922, with its airplanes there were no accidents involving human deaths since the Second World War. Also, Qantas turned out to be one of the oldest airlines in the world – only British Airways (in 1919) and the Dutch KLM (in 1920) were founded earlier than Qantas. However, they only occupy the 20th and 23rd places in the rating, respectively.
Qantas managed to keep first place despite an incident that occurred on November 4, 2010 with an airplane Airbus A380, which had to make an emergency landing in Singapore due to a fire in the engine. Onboard the damaged liner were 433 passengers and 26 crewmembers, none of them were hurt. Because of this incident in 2010, the world’s airlines banned the flights of A380 for several days. According to the German newspaper “Die Welt”, citing the results of the rating, perhaps Qantas kept its place because the company managed to repair the giant European plane completely spending 50 million euros.
Finnish national airline Finnair founded in 1923, was recognized for being one of the safest European airlines. The last crash of this company’s plane took place on 8 November 1963 – a DC-3 liner crashed on the approach to Mariehamn (Åland Islands). In the crash, 22 passengers and the pilots were killed, two passengers and a flight attendant survived.
Among European carriers following Finnair, the Portuguese TAP Portugal (founded in 1946) is recognized as the safest airline. The only accident with the airplane of this carrier happened on November 19, 1977, when a Boeing 727 during landing at the airport of Madeira in heavy rain slipped off the runway and fell from the 60-meter high bank. The Liner split into two parts and caught fire. Of the 164 people onboard, 131 were killed (125 passengers and 6 crew members).
The youngest of the seven leaders is the airline Air Berlin. It is interesting that initially the carrier with this name was founded in 1978 in the United States, but in 1992 the airline was bought by a group of German businessmen and it moved to Germany. During the existence of the carrier there were no accidents with Air Berlin’s airplanes, which have killed people.
Beside Qantas, Finnair, TAP Portugal and Air Berlin, three other airlines were also evaluated as perfect – Air New Zealand (founded in 1940), Cathay Pacific Airways from Hong Kong (1946) and Japanese All Nippon Airways (1954).
The next group of the seven safest airlines also had no emergencies with humans, but these carriers are younger than 30 years. The first of these seven is Virgin Atlantic Airways, a British carrier created in 1984 by billionaire Richard Branson. During the existence of Virgin Atlantic, there were three incidents with its planes but they only led to an emergency landing of the aircraft, nobody was hurt.
The same group included the former Russian carrier Transaero, which was ranked 10th in the overall rating. The second carrier in Russia by amount of transported passengers, created in 1990 had no emergencies that would have killed or injured passengers. This group also includes Dubai-based Emirates, Taiwan’s EVA Air, Chinese Hainan Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines and Qatar Airways.
The second largest air carrier in the world – the German Lufthansa with its rating of 0.005 points takes only 21st place. This position in rating is explained by the fact that on September 14, 1993, the A320 of the German airline flew out of the runway during landing in Warsaw and crashed into the ground, killing two people. In the ranking Lufthansa is inferior to two British carriers – budget airline easyJet (18th place) and the national carrier of the United Kingdom British Airways (20th place). The last crash with its airplane occurred on September 10, 1976, when the liner heading from Heathrow to Istanbul, collided with DC-9 of Inex Adria airlines in the sky over Yugoslavia. All 54 passengers and 9 crewmembers were killed.
23rd line of the rating is taken by one of the oldest European airlines – Dutch KLM. It is followed by the youngest airline of the Old World – Thomsonfly, which was founded only in 2004. 27th place went to the Irish budget carrier Ryanair. Next comes another young company – Swiss Air Lines (founded in 2002), it takes the 29th place.
Russian Aeroflot took 35th place with a safety rating of 0.092 points. Compared with the previous rating, the national carrier has significantly improved its position – then it took 49th place. Now Aeroflot overtakes such airlines as Alitalia (founded in 1947) – 37th place, Air France (1933), which occupies only 41st position, the Spanish Iberia (1927) – it’s in 47th place, and SAS Scandinavian Airlines (1946), which is one line below.
Since 1953, a total of 127 catastrophes and minor accidents happened to Soviet Aeroflot’s planes, they took the lives of 6,895 people. But experts of the rating take into account only accidents of the national carrier, which happened since 1992, that is, after the collapse of Aeroflot into many companies and the formation of the current enterprise of “Aeroflot — Russian airlines” (and without subsidiaries). Since that time, the aircraft of the national carrier had one disaster – Airbus A310 flying from Moscow to Hong Kong fell in March 1994 in the Kemerovo region. The tragedy happened because the pilot in command, relying on autopilot, let his 15-year-old son sit in his place. The child accidentally turned off the autopilot, and the plane went into an inverted spin. 75 people died in that crash.
In addition, on October 8, 1996, when landing at the airport of Italian Turin, the An-124 Ruslan cargo plane leased by Aeroflot from Ajax airline crashed. Five people were killed and eleven were injured. On February 27, 2005, Aeroflot's Tu-154 accidentally landed not on the runway but on the taxiway at Barcelona airport. On February 25, 2010 at the airport of the Norwegian capital, the pilots of the Airbus A320 flight SU212 Oslo – Moscow mistakenly took off from the taxiway, not the runway. In both cases, the tragedy was avoided only because, by a happy coincidence, there were no other aircraft on the taxiways.
Turkish Airlines, the national carrier of Turkey, is in the last ten of the list; with a rating of 0.679 points, it took 54th place. For 75 years of company history there were 18 accidents with its airplanes on domestic flights and three – on international flights. The last one happened on February 25, 2009 at Amsterdam Schiphol airport. During landing, a Boeing 737 crashed near a busy highway and broke into three pieces. There were 128 passengers and 7 crewmembers onboard. In the crash, 9 people were killed and 86 injured. The Brazilian TAM Linhas Aereas closes the list.
If you are concerned about the statistics of plane crashes, it is likely that you are developing fear of flying. We recommend you to purchase a video course “Flying Without Fear” which will give you all the necessary information to acquire the skills for a calm flight.
The leaders of the rating are seven airlines that have flown more than 30 years without incidents. The safest airline is Australian Qantas, founded in 1922, with its airplanes there were no accidents involving human deaths since the Second World War. Also, Qantas turned out to be one of the oldest airlines in the world – only British Airways (in 1919) and the Dutch KLM (in 1920) were founded earlier than Qantas. However, they only occupy the 20th and 23rd places in the rating, respectively.
Qantas managed to keep first place despite an incident that occurred on November 4, 2010 with an airplane Airbus A380, which had to make an emergency landing in Singapore due to a fire in the engine. Onboard the damaged liner were 433 passengers and 26 crewmembers, none of them were hurt. Because of this incident in 2010, the world’s airlines banned the flights of A380 for several days. According to the German newspaper “Die Welt”, citing the results of the rating, perhaps Qantas kept its place because the company managed to repair the giant European plane completely spending 50 million euros.
Finnish national airline Finnair founded in 1923, was recognized for being one of the safest European airlines. The last crash of this company’s plane took place on 8 November 1963 – a DC-3 liner crashed on the approach to Mariehamn (Åland Islands). In the crash, 22 passengers and the pilots were killed, two passengers and a flight attendant survived.
Among European carriers following Finnair, the Portuguese TAP Portugal (founded in 1946) is recognized as the safest airline. The only accident with the airplane of this carrier happened on November 19, 1977, when a Boeing 727 during landing at the airport of Madeira in heavy rain slipped off the runway and fell from the 60-meter high bank. The Liner split into two parts and caught fire. Of the 164 people onboard, 131 were killed (125 passengers and 6 crew members).
The youngest of the seven leaders is the airline Air Berlin. It is interesting that initially the carrier with this name was founded in 1978 in the United States, but in 1992 the airline was bought by a group of German businessmen and it moved to Germany. During the existence of the carrier there were no accidents with Air Berlin’s airplanes, which have killed people.
Beside Qantas, Finnair, TAP Portugal and Air Berlin, three other airlines were also evaluated as perfect – Air New Zealand (founded in 1940), Cathay Pacific Airways from Hong Kong (1946) and Japanese All Nippon Airways (1954).
The next group of the seven safest airlines also had no emergencies with humans, but these carriers are younger than 30 years. The first of these seven is Virgin Atlantic Airways, a British carrier created in 1984 by billionaire Richard Branson. During the existence of Virgin Atlantic, there were three incidents with its planes but they only led to an emergency landing of the aircraft, nobody was hurt.
The same group included the former Russian carrier Transaero, which was ranked 10th in the overall rating. The second carrier in Russia by amount of transported passengers, created in 1990 had no emergencies that would have killed or injured passengers. This group also includes Dubai-based Emirates, Taiwan’s EVA Air, Chinese Hainan Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines and Qatar Airways.
The second largest air carrier in the world – the German Lufthansa with its rating of 0.005 points takes only 21st place. This position in rating is explained by the fact that on September 14, 1993, the A320 of the German airline flew out of the runway during landing in Warsaw and crashed into the ground, killing two people. In the ranking Lufthansa is inferior to two British carriers – budget airline easyJet (18th place) and the national carrier of the United Kingdom British Airways (20th place). The last crash with its airplane occurred on September 10, 1976, when the liner heading from Heathrow to Istanbul, collided with DC-9 of Inex Adria airlines in the sky over Yugoslavia. All 54 passengers and 9 crewmembers were killed.
23rd line of the rating is taken by one of the oldest European airlines – Dutch KLM. It is followed by the youngest airline of the Old World – Thomsonfly, which was founded only in 2004. 27th place went to the Irish budget carrier Ryanair. Next comes another young company – Swiss Air Lines (founded in 2002), it takes the 29th place.
Russian Aeroflot took 35th place with a safety rating of 0.092 points. Compared with the previous rating, the national carrier has significantly improved its position – then it took 49th place. Now Aeroflot overtakes such airlines as Alitalia (founded in 1947) – 37th place, Air France (1933), which occupies only 41st position, the Spanish Iberia (1927) – it’s in 47th place, and SAS Scandinavian Airlines (1946), which is one line below.
Since 1953, a total of 127 catastrophes and minor accidents happened to Soviet Aeroflot’s planes, they took the lives of 6,895 people. But experts of the rating take into account only accidents of the national carrier, which happened since 1992, that is, after the collapse of Aeroflot into many companies and the formation of the current enterprise of “Aeroflot — Russian airlines” (and without subsidiaries). Since that time, the aircraft of the national carrier had one disaster – Airbus A310 flying from Moscow to Hong Kong fell in March 1994 in the Kemerovo region. The tragedy happened because the pilot in command, relying on autopilot, let his 15-year-old son sit in his place. The child accidentally turned off the autopilot, and the plane went into an inverted spin. 75 people died in that crash.
In addition, on October 8, 1996, when landing at the airport of Italian Turin, the An-124 Ruslan cargo plane leased by Aeroflot from Ajax airline crashed. Five people were killed and eleven were injured. On February 27, 2005, Aeroflot's Tu-154 accidentally landed not on the runway but on the taxiway at Barcelona airport. On February 25, 2010 at the airport of the Norwegian capital, the pilots of the Airbus A320 flight SU212 Oslo – Moscow mistakenly took off from the taxiway, not the runway. In both cases, the tragedy was avoided only because, by a happy coincidence, there were no other aircraft on the taxiways.
Turkish Airlines, the national carrier of Turkey, is in the last ten of the list; with a rating of 0.679 points, it took 54th place. For 75 years of company history there were 18 accidents with its airplanes on domestic flights and three – on international flights. The last one happened on February 25, 2009 at Amsterdam Schiphol airport. During landing, a Boeing 737 crashed near a busy highway and broke into three pieces. There were 128 passengers and 7 crewmembers onboard. In the crash, 9 people were killed and 86 injured. The Brazilian TAM Linhas Aereas closes the list.
If you are concerned about the statistics of plane crashes, it is likely that you are developing fear of flying. We recommend you to purchase a video course “Flying Without Fear” which will give you all the necessary information to acquire the skills for a calm flight.
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