Air safety in 2020: fewer flights but more deaths in accidents than 2019

In a year in which the number of airline passengers flown fell by two-thirds, aviation tragedies still claimed more lives than in 2019.

According to analysis by the aviation consultancy To70, there were 39 accidents involving passenger aircraft in 2020. Five were fatal, costing a total of 299 lives.

In 2019 there were 86 accidents, of which eight were fatal, resulting in 257 deaths.

More than half of the lives lost in aviation accidents in 2020 were aboard Ukraine International Airlines flight 752, which was mistaken for an American warplane and shot down shortly after take-off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport on 8 January.