TIME TO TAKE STOCK REFERENCED MATERIAL (CAA 202

Looking back on 2023 with an analytical mind must teach us something. The information as always makes horrible reading and again shows us where the main accidents occur and they are not on airlines and all the ICAO-induced rules and regulations, training focuses and special interventions, is undoubtedly not doing its job as intended. The statistics are somewhat contaminated by the addition of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) in the mix. I do understand the dilemma, as the RPA air vehicles, although void of human presence, are all, or let us rather say those registered, carry an official tail number and therefore must make part of the statistics.

- Charlie Marais

However, for the purposes of my analyses, I will discard the RPA accidents until such time humans fly and die in them. I could not find the November accident statistics, but taking the remaining 11 months, to determine the contribution in various areas of interest. For the 11 months the SACAA recorded 130 accidents, making an average of just below 12 accidents per month. Of these, remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) contributed an average of two accidents per month, so we are left with ten accidents per month for manned air vehicles during 2023. Unfortunately, I am in no position to comment on the year-to-year comparisons, but drilling the averages down to the main contributors, helicopters 14,5%, Non-Type Certified (NTC) 33%, General Aviation (GA) excluding Agricultural (AG) 40%, AG 8%, Gliders 3,5% and airliner type operations 1%. Please note that I rounded up or down to make sense of the figures. There were 1,3 fatalities per month, with the major contributor being in the NTC category. Training was responsible for an average of two accidents per month.

At this level of statistics, no clever tricks, just normal arithmetic, it is abundantly clear that the airline industry is performing in a class of its own, considering the number of hours generated. Having said this, I point to the fact that whatever ICAO prescribes, works for the airline industry excellently and poorly to horrific when you go down the ladder to where the source of aircraft accidents occur.

I can see that the CRM, SMS and HF specialists. Sorry, we have to do so many 'soft' courses and they are all acronymic by nature. Crew Resource Management, Safety Management Systems and Human Factors to name but a few.