By IPS Correspondents
PRETORIA, Jan 8 2004 (IPS)

African airlines have set an ambitious target of reducing by 50 percent the number of accidents by the year 2010.

Since this goal was set at the Association of African Airlines general assembly in Tripoli on Dec. 10 last year two planes have come down, in Benin and Egypt with a cost of 261 lives.

According to the Aviation Safety Network, based in The Netherlands, Africa accounts for only three percent of global air traffic. Yet African airlines are responsible for 17 percent of accidents.

The Flash Airlines Boeing 737 that crashed into the Red Sea after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh on Jan. 3 was regularly serviced in Norway, according to its owners.

Pilots employed by the small airline had at least 5,000 hours flying experience.

However, in Oct. 2002, Flash Airlines was barred for safety reasons from flying into Swiss airspace.

A spokesperson for the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Aviation admitted this was drastic step but asserted that the airline "is a danger to aviation security".

Egyptian airline is the African airline with the most fatal crashes in the last three decades. Its list of accidents stretches back to Jan. 1971 when an EgyptAir Comet4 struck sand dunes on the approach to near Tripoli airport in Libya killing all eight crew and eight passengers.

Two years later an EgyptAir Ilyushin 18 crashed into a mountain on approach to Nicosia in Cyprus killing all seven crew and 30 passengers.

In Dec. 1976 an EgyptAir Boeing 707 crashed into a textile mill on approach to Bangkok in Thailand killing all nine crew members, 43 passengers and 20 people on the ground.

In Oct. 1999 an EgyptAir Boeing 767-300ER was lost in the Atlantic Ocean near Nantucket Island, after departure from JFK Airport bound for Cairo. The 15 crew members and 202 passengers all died.

The Boeing 727 that clipped a building after takeoff from Cotonou in Benin on Christmas Day killed 113 people aboard. It headed a disturbing 15 year list of African crashes.

Hijackings and terrorist attacks also play a role in some of the crashes. In Nov. 1996 an Ethiopian Airlines plane bound for Abidjan, the capital of Cote d’Ivoire, was hijacked over the Comoros Islands and crashed into the Indian Ocean, killing 125 people.

A DC-10 airliner belonging to the French airline UTA was blown up over Niger in Sep. 1989 killing 170 people, in an attack blamed on Libyan secret services.

In Nov. 1985 Egyptian troops stormed a hijacked EgyptAir Boeing 737 in Valletta, Malta. The hijackers responded by throwing hand grenades. Two of the six crew members were killed along with 58 of the 90 passengers.

A South African air safety expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the poor safety record is a balance between economics and regulations. There is also a geographic element with southern Africa being safer than western and central parts of the continent.

"There are too many operators in parts of the continent and because of the highly competitive nature of the business, the pressure on these operators is to keep costs down," said the former aviation safety inspector. "When they spend in one place they have to save on another."

"There are also operators for the short haul. In unstable areas, they go for maximum profit in the shortest possible time. This happens in areas of low regulatory oversight. Regulation is critical. Too much of it kills business. Too little kills people," he said.

South Africa experienced its worst air disaster in Nov. 1987 when a South African airliner crashed off Mauritius, killing 160 people.

International Air Transport Association (IATA) director general Giovanni Bisigani, welcoming three new airlines to the general assembly in Tripoli last month, warned that conditions would continue to be difficult in the light of worldwide airline economies.

The industry was emerging from the worst period in its100-year existence, he said.

Since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in Sep. 2001, airlines around the world have lost 35 billion dollars, according to IATA.

"In Africa, our industry is a powerful factor of development and economic integration. For the past year we have asked governments and our industry partners to look at the new reality of air transport," Bisigani said. "Safety and security require government regulation. But much of the commercial regulation is outdated. National ownership limits should be liberalised whenever and wherever governments think it is feasible," he said. "(But) don’t get me wrong, we are not trying to push national governments to do things they don’t want to do. We ask them to liberalise whatever they feel they can." Bisigani said, "IATA has no dogmatic blueprint for the regulatory future of air transport. We would like to move to a ‘business-like’ environment at different speeds in different regions. Let us all recognise that Africa is not Europe and that Asia is not North America." Bisigani urged African governments to liberalise their aviation legislation wherever possible and adopt an open skies policy to share resources and expertise.

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