Fewer plane crash deaths

By Our Transport Correspondent

Air travel was safer last year than in the two preceding years, according to an analysis by Flight magazine. The number of deaths in air crashes was 710 compared with 1,144 in 1980 and 1,267 in 1979. Almost all fatalities involved third world operators, mostly Latin or South American second-line carriers.

Eastern European countries had a poor record, with the worst accident of the year; 178 killed when a Yugoslav charter aircraft crashed into a mountain in daylight cloud in Corsica in December.

Russia's Aeroflot was also involved in a serious accident when about seventy people were killed on takeoff near Leningrad in February. The exact number is not known Flight says, because "'as usual there is no information on what actually happened to Aeroflot, the world's biggest airline".

The six worst accidents in 1981, in terms of numbers killed, were:

Jugoslav Inex Adria. DC9 hit high ground in cloud on charter flight to Ajaccio, December, 178 killed.

Far Eastern Air Transport. Boeing 737 fell apart in air, Taipei, August, 110 killed.

Aeroflot. TU 134 crashed on takeoff, Leningrad, February, 70 killed.

Aeromexico. DC9 crashlanded in storm, Chihuahua, July, 50 killed.

Colombian local airline. Viscount hit Andes at 11,000 ft,

August, 50 killed. I

Somali Airlines. F 27 crashed I

ln agh ied. Mogadishu, July, 49 gkihllefd.rsMgdsu

No wide-bodied jets crashed and the trend was encouraging, at any rate in the United States, Europe, the Middle and Far East, and Australasia, Flight says. "Evidence suggests so far that whatever economies the carriers are making to cope with two successive years of massive financial losses, they are not in areas affecting safety."