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IAC reports record-breaking number of air accidents in 2016 over 25 years

"A tendency of the recent years towards increased safety of commercial flights was broken," the organization said

© Archive/Sergei Bobylyov/TASS

MOSCOW, March 15. /TASS/. As many as 63 air accidents, a record-breaking number in the past 25 years, were reported in 2016, the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) said in an annual report for 2016 posted on its website on Tuesday.

"It should be noted that the year 2016 saw a record high number of air accidents and investigations conducted by the IAC in the past 25 years. A tendency of the recent years towards increased safety of commercial flights was broken," the document said.

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Thus, a total of 63 air accidents, including 28 air crashes killing 74 people, were reported in the member states of the interstate agreement on civil aviation and the use of airspace. As many as 28 accidents, including 11 crashes claiming 44 lives, were reported in commercial aviation. Thirty-five accidents occurred in general purpose aviation, with 30 people killed in 17 crashes.

"According to preliminary estimates, about 94% of last years’ accidents can be attributed to the human factor," the IAC said, adding that the bulk of accidents were caused by erroneous actions of pilots, loss of control over aircraft in unfavorable weather conditions, and piloting in the state of alcoholic intoxication.

The IAC report does not include at least two crashes, namely the crash of a Russian emergencies ministry’s Lyushin Il-76 plane on a firefighting mission in the Siberian Irkutsk region that killed ten people, and the crash of the Russian defense ministry’s Tupolev Tu-154 near Sochi that killed 92 people.

The Interstate Aviation Committee is a supranational executive body responsible for the safety of civil aviation flights in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It was set up on the basis of the intergovernmental agreement on civil aviation and the use of airspace that was signed on December 30, 1991. The Committee’s members are eleven states, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Georgia withdrew from the agreement along with termination of its CIS membership in 2009.

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