Rarely has air travel seen so few victims, but two phenomena are worrying airlines

Please note that this data applies to aircraft with a capacity of at least 14 seats. There are no statistics available yet for smaller devices. Military aircraft are also not included in the results. According to Willie Walsh, chief executive of IATA, aviation is “one of the safest activities you can do”. However, the latter recognizes that “while the risk of theft is exceptionally low, it is not risk-free”.

The number and rate of accidents in aviation from 2013 to mid-2023 ©IPM GraphicsWhat are these “unknown forces” that are disturbing aircraft GPS? “It’s kind of a perfect crime and a great technological mystery”

Disoriented planes

Last December, during a day organized for the press in Geneva, IATA highlighted the new threats hovering in the sky. The most worrying involves the hacking of aircraft GPS on air routes that pass primarily through the Middle East. This type of cyber attack, which has appeared since last September, provides false information on the position of planes, which can cause them to divert for several tens of kilometers and cause them to enter unauthorized areas or the skies of hostile countries. “We urgently need to find a solution to this problem because it has grown,” worried Nick Careen, IATA’s head of safety, last December. A meeting between various public and military authorities and aircraft manufacturers is expected in the coming days to adopt a strategy to deal with this new threat.

IATA officials’ other concern was overtaken by the cruel news of the day. Last Tuesday, a Japan Airlines plane collided with a Japanese Coast Guard plane on one of the runways at Tokyo-Haneda airport. This tragedy claimed the lives of five members of the plane’s crew. The risk of collision on the track was one of the new risks highlighted by Nick Careen last month. With the constant increase in air traffic, airport runways have become real anthills that are increasingly difficult to manage. IATA has expressed particular concern about the situation in the United States where in recent months several accidents have occurred, fortunately without fatal consequences, on the runways of various airports. And the association saw an explanation in this. “A significant shortage of adequately trained controllers has been identified as a major problem in the US aviation sector,” explained the IATA safety chief.

2024-01-02 15:09:00
#Rarely #air #travel #victims #phenomena #worrying #airlines