3toes
24th May 2010, 10:19 PM
Interesting way of looking at the safety record of an airline based on number of passenger killed rather than on crashes alone.
A french friend has always referred to this airline as Air Chance which takes on a new meaning here.
A new book has attacked the safety record of Europe’s biggest airline Air France-KLM. ‘The Hidden Face of Air France’, an investigation by journalist Fabrice Amedeo, criticises what he sees as failures in Air France’s management culture. The revelations came on the day that the airline was announcing huge annual losses of more than one billion euros. Air France flights have fallen victim to several accidents in recent years and, according to a report on the book in the daily newspaper Libération, statistics compiled online rank its safety record as only the 65th best in the world.
According to a tally compiled by the Swiss-based website ‘Aircraft Crashes Record Office’, with 1,783 fatalities Air France has been the second most deadly airline for passengers, trailing only Russia’s Aeroflot. Germany’s Lufthansa, which is of similar size and age, is in 43rd place. In June last year Air France flight 447 from Rio to Paris broke apart and plunged into the Atlantic with the loss of all 228 people on board. The cause of the crash has not been officially confirmed, but investigators found that cockpit flight computers were receiving incorrect airspeed readings and Air France has since replaced speed probes on its other jets. ‘Air France has a fleet of ultramodern planes, and its pilots are among the best in the world ... but its safety statistics are those of a second division company,’ writes Amedeo. ‘The problem appears not to be technical but cultural,’ he says, accusing the airline’s executives of a ‘certain laxity’ in responding to incidents and adapting their safety procedures.
In a statement the airline said: ‘Air France’s safety standards meet the most stringent requirements in the international aviation industry. Air France is continuously working on improving flight safety which has always been one of its main priorities.'
The French Paper - news section (http://www.thefrenchpaper.com/index.php/news/view/air-france-attacked-over-safety-record)
A french friend has always referred to this airline as Air Chance which takes on a new meaning here.
A new book has attacked the safety record of Europe’s biggest airline Air France-KLM. ‘The Hidden Face of Air France’, an investigation by journalist Fabrice Amedeo, criticises what he sees as failures in Air France’s management culture. The revelations came on the day that the airline was announcing huge annual losses of more than one billion euros. Air France flights have fallen victim to several accidents in recent years and, according to a report on the book in the daily newspaper Libération, statistics compiled online rank its safety record as only the 65th best in the world.
According to a tally compiled by the Swiss-based website ‘Aircraft Crashes Record Office’, with 1,783 fatalities Air France has been the second most deadly airline for passengers, trailing only Russia’s Aeroflot. Germany’s Lufthansa, which is of similar size and age, is in 43rd place. In June last year Air France flight 447 from Rio to Paris broke apart and plunged into the Atlantic with the loss of all 228 people on board. The cause of the crash has not been officially confirmed, but investigators found that cockpit flight computers were receiving incorrect airspeed readings and Air France has since replaced speed probes on its other jets. ‘Air France has a fleet of ultramodern planes, and its pilots are among the best in the world ... but its safety statistics are those of a second division company,’ writes Amedeo. ‘The problem appears not to be technical but cultural,’ he says, accusing the airline’s executives of a ‘certain laxity’ in responding to incidents and adapting their safety procedures.
In a statement the airline said: ‘Air France’s safety standards meet the most stringent requirements in the international aviation industry. Air France is continuously working on improving flight safety which has always been one of its main priorities.'
The French Paper - news section (http://www.thefrenchpaper.com/index.php/news/view/air-france-attacked-over-safety-record)