No accident is good. Much less when it is fatal, although the balance between commercial flights operated this year and those that have ended up being fatal, shows that air is, once again, the safest transport. Data managed by the Aviation Safety Foundation and aviation safety authorities in the directly affected countries indicate that, in 2023, 110 people have died on commercial flights in Nepal, Canada, the United States, Indonesia and Brazil.
Except for the one in Nepal, which involved an ATR turboprop for 68 passengers, the rest of the accidents have involved small single- and twin-engine aircraft. These were the fatal accidents in global commercial aviation of the year we have just left behind.
The worst plane accident of 2023 happened 15 days into the year. It featured a Franco-Italian turboprop from the ATR company owned by the Yeti Airlines company. It happened during an internal flight between Kathmandu and Pokhara, Nepal. During the approach to the new airport of the second most important city in the country, opened on January 1, 2023. 72 people died in the accident: four were crew members and 68 were passengers.
Nepal has been included in recent years on the so-called aviation 'blacklist' by the European Commission. Aviation safety specialists from different EU countries consider that, in general, the country's aviation authorities are not as strict as they should be in their supervisory work and, therefore, 20 Nepalese airlines are prohibited from flying to or over Europe. Although the latter is a somewhat distant hypothesis, since the fleets of almost all Nepalese operators are made up of regional aircraft, the European Union goes further and recommends its nationals not to use these airlines if they travel to the area.
In recent times, the Nepalese transport authorities had agreed with their European colleagues to do everything in their power to get off that list that discredits an entire country: a state of 147,000 km2 and a complicated orography that has on tourism. mountaineering (which usually uses airplanes) a great source of income. However, its commercial aviation remains marked by suspicion. The investigation after the Yeti Airlines turboprop accident revealed, among several errors, the lack of more complete training for the pilots. That is a notable deficiency that has also been taken into account to not yet lift the veto on commercial aviation in that territory located between India and Tibet.
On February 28, the two pilots and sole occupants of a Canadian Cessna Caravan lost their lives during a flight between two small towns in Ontario, Canada: Nakina and Fort Hope. In mid-flight the plane disappeared, leaving no trace and its remains were not found until four days later, about 60 kilometers from the final destination: a natural terrain airfield to which the plane was transporting cargo.
In May, on the 20th, the two aviators at the controls of a 19-seat Viking Twin Otter died after crashing into the ocean. They were the only occupants aboard a plane that that day was making a transfer flight between Santa Rosa, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii, where the Canadian-built turboprop was going to be based. It is known from the accident that once flying over the Pacific, the pilots tried to return to their point of origin due to engine failure, although they did not succeed.
On June 23, a single-engine Cessna Caravan from Indonesia's SAM Air caught fire after crashing in a mountainous area during a flight between two small towns in that country: Elelim and Ilaga. All six people on board died in the accident: the four passengers and the two pilots from the SAM or Semuwa Aviasi Mandiri company, specialized in passenger and cargo links at remote airports in that Asian country.
On September 16, an Embraer Bandeirante model, a Brazilian-built turboprop, crashed during landing at the Barcelona airport, in the state of Amazonas. The device was covering an air taxi flight booked for a group of 12 people from Manaus, the capital of that same state. Both the occupants and the two Manaus Aerotaxi airmen lost their lives after landing. Due to the torrential rains in Barcelos, the Embraer was unable to stop, left the runway, collided with the airfield's security fence and ended up falling down an embankment. Of the 14 occupants, none survived the strong blows of the fall.
On October 29, another air taxi flight ended the lives of a dozen people: nine adults and a baby, as well as two pilots. The travelers had booked a flight from the ART Taxi Aereo company and it provided them with a single-engine Cessna Caravan to take off from the Rio Branco airport, in the state of Acre, in the north of the country. His intention was to reach Envira, in the Amazon. It couldn't be: a few minutes after going into the air, the plane stopped communicating by radio. He disappeared. It fell into an area with very difficult access, where it ended up catching fire. The 14 people flying in the Cessna lost their lives there. Those from that remote Brazilian region were the last victims of commercial aviation in 2023.
However, two days after closing 2023, the new year has started with the accident of a large plane in Tokyo. A Japan Airlines Airbus A350 reportedly collided with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft while landing at Haneda, one of two international airports serving the Japanese capital and one of the most congested aviation facilities in the world.
The plane, delivered by Airbus to the Japanese company in November 2021, was making an internal flight between Sapporo and Tokyo. The strong impact caused a fire and the A350 crew immediately began an evacuation operation of the aircraft assisted by firefighters and other Haneda personnel.
