Air safety: India sees eight aviation accidents every year on average

The frequency of serious aviation incidents is on the rise, but accident numbers have remained constant

India sees eight aviation accidents every year on average, but most don’t involve scheduled airlines.

Non-scheduled operators, which include chartered and company flights, account for 39.3 per cent of 56 accidents in the last seven years, according to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data from 2014 to 2020, the latest year with numbers available from the Civil Aviation Statistics Handbook. Training institutes account for 28.6 per cent of accidents.  According to the government data, the share of scheduled operators is 23.2 per cent for the period under consideration (see chart 1).

An accident typically refers to an occurrence involving