Almost a third of all plane accidents around the globe happen on the ground either because runways are ill-designed or because of air traffic control mistakes.
Releasing the information, the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) director of air navigation Nancy Graham said this week that with air traffic set to rise by 70% in the next ten years there was real cause for concern.
The number of accidents was at an all-time low in 2010 but she told a runway safety symposium in Montreal there was no room to relax on this issue.
She explained: “The trend is worrisome because the rate of accidents is flat, but the (air traffic) growth is increasing, so when you take those two things together, you’re going to get increased accidents.
"We want zero accidents.”
Across the globe, between 1995 and 2008, there were 1429 airline accidents of which 431 occurred during take-off or landing, according to the UN aviation agency.
The agency blames pilot mistakes and poor runways as the cause of many crashes and the ICAO highlights airport design and construction, air traffic control, air traffic management systems, airline operations, flight crew awareness and communications as major players in the stats.
by Dinah Hatch
