Philippine Air Transport Safety: Analysis of Accidents and Incidents over the Last Two Decades

Abstract

The main objective of the study is to raise awareness on the risk susceptibility of the general public on domestic air travel in the Philippines. Annual incident, accident and fatality rates per million departures from 1995 to 2015 were computed and analyzed. Philippines' average accident rate is 3.04, relatively low compared to the global average of 3.83. The country has not had any accident since 2010 and its fatality rate has been zero since 2003. Runway excursion during landing is the most frequent incident/accident while controlled flight into terrain during descent has the highest fatality rate. Safety cultures in aerodromes and recommended flight safety procedures were also identified. Using IAOGP safety assessment mechanism, the safety scores of local airlines were computed using parameters such as management and operational environment factors. Airlines A and B scored 6.544 and 6.765, respectively. Philippines performs above average in most aviation categories set by ICAO.