By Oisin Sweeney • Published: 02 Jan 2021 • 7:35
Plane crash deaths rose despite a 42% decrease in flights over 2020 - Image Source: Twitter
RECENTLY released statistics have revealed that 2020 saw a rise in plane crash fatalities despite the pandemic vastly reducing air travel worldwide.
According to Dutch consultancy To70, 299 people lost their lives in commercial aircraft crashes worldwide in 2020. Last year saw 40 passenger plane accidents, five of which were fatal. In 2019, 257 people died across eight fatal crashes among 86 overall airline accidents.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, flights worldwide dropped by 42% from 2019 to 24.4 million journeys in 2020. The first crash of the year was in January when 176 people died after a Ukrainian plane was shot out of the sky after leaving Tehran airport in Iran. The Iranian government recently agreed to pay $150,000 to the families of each victim, describing the missile attack as a technical error.
In May a commercial plane in Pakistan crashed into a residential neighbourhood in the large port city of Karachi in a disaster that led to 98 deaths.
Airline crash deaths have significantly dropped over the last two decades. In 2005, 1015 deaths were recorded in airline accidents while 2017 was the safest year in aviation history with just 13 deaths worldwide.
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Oisin is an Irish writer based in Seville, the sunny capital of Andalucia. After starting his working life as a bookseller, he moved into journalism and cut his teeth as a reporter at one of Ireland's biggest news websites. Since joining Euro Weekly News in November, he has enjoyed covering the latest stories from Seville, Spain and further afield - with special interests in crime, cybersecurity, and European politics. Anyone who can pronounce his name first try gets a free cerveza...
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