NLR - TP - 2000 - 210 An analysis of the safety performance of air cargo operators

This investigation has been carried out under a contract awarded by the Netherlands Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (RLD), contract number LI/99.121/2. Summary Previous research has suggested that cargo operators suffer a disproportionally high number of accidents. The degree of unsafety could however not properly be quantified due to lack of data. The objective of the underlying study was to quantify the safety record of different categories of cargo operators by calculating the accident rate, i.e. the number of accidents per million flights. Flight cycle data of Western-built jet-and turboprop aircraft was combined with aircraft ownership data to calculate the number of flights for different operator/aircraft combinations. This was subsequently combined with accident data to calculate accident rates. There are a number of differences between passenger and cargo operations. The average age of cargo aircraft typically is twice as high as the age of a passenger aircraft. Most cargo operations take place at night, while for passenger operations the number of night-time operations is only around 20% of the total number of movements. The analysis shows that especially the group of cargo operators that conduct flights on a non-scheduled base (so called ad-hoc cargo operators) have a particularly high risk profile. The accident rate of these ad-hoc cargo operators is almost seven times higher compared with scheduled passenger traffic of major operators. Asia, South America and especially Africa are the problem areas with respect to safety of air cargo operations. African cargo operations are dramatically unsafe with almost 17 accidents per million flights. The difference in the level of safety between cargo and passenger operations is most noteworthy in Africa, North America and South America. In North America, the accident rate of ad-hoc cargo operators is 2 times higher compared with major cargo operators. The very sparse information that is available on Russian built jet aircraft indicates an accident rate for cargo flights that is twice as high as that for passenger flights. The level of safety of Russian built cargo aircraft is expected to deteriorate further because the disintegration of Aeroflot resulted in the breakdown of the existing way in which training, maintenance and logistics was organised. While Russian built aircraft are well-designed, continuous airworthiness has always been a problem due to the lack of a proper maintenance concept. These problems are now aggravated because of the lack of spare parts. Results of this study indicate that, in Africa, cargo-operations …