The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reports that the accident rate for western-built aircraft in 2009 was the second lowest in aviation history. Despite fewer incidents however, more lives were lost in 2009 over 2008 due to the nature of the accidents that did occur.

According to IATA, the overall global accident rate has been cut 36 per cent from the rate just ten years ago. The 2009 statistics indicate that there was an average of one accident for every 1.4 million flights, an improvement over 2008 which had an accident rate of one for every 1.2 million flights.

IATA breaks down the data as follows:

• 2.3 billion people flew safely on 35 million flights (27 million jet, 8 million turboprop)
• 19 accidents involving western built jet aircraft compared to 22 in 2008
• 90 accidents (all aircraft types, Eastern and Western built) compared to 109 in 2008
• 18 fatal accidents (all aircraft types) compared to 23 in 2008
• 685 fatalities compared to 502 in 2008

The regional breakdowns:

• North Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) had zero western-built jet hull losses in 2009
• North America (0.41) and Europe (0.45) performed better than the global average of 0.71
• Asia-Pacific's accident rate worsened to 0.86 in 2009 (compared to 0.58 in 2008) with three accidents involving carriers from the region
• The Middle East and North Africa region saw its accident rate rise to 3.32 (compared to 1.89 in 2008) with four accidents involving carriers from the region
• Africa had an accident rate of 9.94, significantly higher than their 2008 rate of 2.12. Africa has once again the worst rate of the world. There were five Western-built jet hull losses with African carriers in 2009. African carriers are 2% of global traffic, but 26% of global western-built jet hull losses

IATA identified key contributors to accidents in 2009. These included runway excursions, accounting for 26 per cent of all accidents; ground damage (10 per cent); and pilot handling, which accounted for 30 per cent of all accidents in 2009. The latter is a key focus particularly in the United States where training, fatigue and pilot qualifications have been raised as concerns after the crash of a commuter aircraft in February of 2009. Rules that will increase the minimum qualifications for pilots of all commercial carriers in the U.S. are pending. IAPA supports efforts to increase pilot training and raise the qualification minimums.