Aviation Accidents in India: 1970–2020

The aim of this study is to comprehend possible trends and patterns in accidents in the civil aviation sector in the past five decades using a descriptive statistical approach. As civil aviation safety has improved, fatalities per year have decreased over the period. The current paper aims to investigate prominent trends and characteristics of the occurrences and causes of accidents in India from 1970 to 2020. This study reveals the relationship between the number of accidents, fatalities, and injuries, causal, temporal, and spatial parameters. Pre-1990, pilot errors were associated with most accidents, whereas technical challenges were related to most accidents post-1990. During the five-decade period, while the fatality rate has decreased, the accident rate has stayed nearly the same. Most accidents and fatalities occur during landing phase of a flight. We also see a positive correlation between monsoons and accidents caused by environmental factors. This descriptive statistics study reveals prominent trends observed between various factors and allows the reader to ponder further the causes of such trends observed in aeronautical accidents. Future research areas are highlighted towards performing a detailed statistical analysis of the accidents in the civil aviation sector.