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AN ANALYSIS OF THE SAFETY PERFORMANCE OF AIR CARGO OPERATORS
by Alfred L.C. Roelen, Mijntje Pikaar, Wim Ovaa

Department of Flight Testing & Safety Amsterdam, The Netherlands

National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) report NLR-TP-2000-210

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Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from State A (of sometimes more than one State), tile head office in State B, aircraft maintenance performed by an organisation in State C, flight crew licensed by State D and aircraft registered in State E. This may result in a very scattered oversight of the responsible National Aviation Authorities.

6. There is tile impression that a lower level of safety is accepted by tile flight or maintenance crew of tile aircraft involved, because of the fact that no fare-paying passengers are transported but cargo.

6 Conclusions:,

• More than half of all cargo movements take place at night, while only a fifth of all passenger operations take place at night.
• There is an increased risk associated with cargo flights conducted at night compared with daytime operations. This association could not be found for passenger operations.
• Over the past 18 years, tile average age of  Western-built cargo aircraft has been steadily increasing from 14 to 22 years, whereas the average age of Western-built passenger aircraft has remained constant at approximately 10 years.
• The accident rate of ad-hoc cargo operators is almost seven times higher compared with scheduled passenger traffic of major operators.
• The accident rate of cargo flights of major operators is more than 3 times higher than passenger traffic of major operators.
• The accident rate for non-scheduled passenger operations is almost 3 times higher than that for scheduled passenger operations.
• Asia, South America and especially Africa are tile problem areas with respect to safety of air cargo operations.
• The difference in the level of safety between cargo and passenger operations is most noteworthy in Africa, North America and South America.
• African cargo operations are dramatically unsafe with almost 17 accidents per n1illion flights.
• In Africa, Asia and South America there is no significant difference in the accident rate for major and ad-hoc operators. In North America however, the accident rate of ad-hoc cargo operators is more than 2 times Higher compared with major cargo operators.
• The accident rate of cargo operations by state owned airlines in Africa is two times higher than that of cargo operations by private airlines. There is no difference between the accident rate of passenger operations of state-owned and private airlines in Africa.
• When a comparison is made between types of accidents of cargo and passenger operators, there are no significant differences in the relative distribution. This suggests that the higher accident rate of cargo operators can not be attributed to a single cause.
• Compared with passenger operations, accidents to cargo operations occur more frequently in the take-off and climb phases.
• Both passenger and cargo aircraft, have a lower accident rate for aircraft of a newer generation.
• While a majority of passenger flights in the past three decades was conducted with 211d generation aircraft, the majority of cargo flights were conducted with first generation aircraft.
• Results of SAFA inspections show that ad-hoc cargo operators are more often non- compliant with ICAO regulations than other operators.
• The main cause for the lower safety level of cargo operators from the developing countries is lack of financial resources.