The number of people killed in airline flights worldwide increased last year, according to figures.

There were 817 deaths to passengers and crew in 2010 compared with 749 in 2009 and only 583 in 2008, statistics from Flight International magazine showed.

Including freight flights and flights involving the repositioning of planes, the figures revealed that there were 26 accidents involving deaths compared with 28 in 2009.

The 2010 death figure of 817 was above the 10-year (2001/10) average of 777.

Flight International operations and safety editor David Learmount said: “Airline fatal accident figures for 2010 confirm that safety in the industry, which had improved constantly from 1903 to 2003, has stagnated for the past eight years.

“An indication that airline safety could still be improved considerably comes from the performance of International Air Transport Association member airlines whose accident rate fell dramatically last year.” Fatal accidents last year included the May 22 incident at Mangalore in India where an Air India Express Boeing 737 crashed, killing more than 150 people.

Ten days earlier an Airbus A330 operated by Afriqiyah Airways crashed near Tripoli airport in Libya with the loss of 103 lives.

Air crash victims

2001 – 778
2002 – 1,022
2003 – 702
2004 – 466
2005 – 1,050
2006 – 863
2007 – 744
2008 - 583
2009 – 749
2010 – 817

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