Airlines safety records

[billt4sf]

For an individual flight, choice of airline is a crap shoot. But statistically you would expect the larger and more successful airlines to have better safety records over a broader spread of flights.

I have flown a few of those airlines. No surprise that Silk Air (better known as Singapore Airlines) has the highest safety rating. I wouldn't have put China Southern in the same class, but always nice to hear.

Not shocked to see Lion near the bottom. I have flown Lion a few times and it always seems to be an old plane and there always seems to be a few things rattling when you feel they shouldn't be when you take off and land.

Surprised not to see Garuda Indonesia anywhere on the list. The national airline of Indonesia doesn't fly to Indonesia?

Ooooops! Gardua's safety rating is 3 out of 7 stars. The seat pitch is 30 to 35 inches. I read that they are the only Indo airline rated to fly is Europe, but that's surprising to see their rating is only 3.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Ooooops! Gardua's safety rating is 3 out of 7 stars. The seat pitch is 30 to 35 inches. I read that they are the only Indo airline rated to fly is Europe, but that's surprising to see their rating is only 3.

What's surprising is that they are allowed to fly to Europe DESPITE being an Indonesian based carrier. See my post above.

 

[Centrals]

I wouldn't have put China Southern in the same class, but always nice to hear.

Punctuality is definitely not a determining factor.
This airline had a few shares of deadly incidence yrs ago. BTW, It was fined by USDA quite recently for importing primates into USA illegally .

 

[zf2nt]

I just got back to CA last night after traveling all the way from Sorong. We started our trip by flying from Jakarta to Kaimana on Lion Air, and that was a disaster. As I was boarding the turboprop in Ambon somebody decided my carry-on bag was too big to fit in the overhead bin so they forced me to check it at the ramp. As best as I can determine, somebody took it off the plane when we landed briefly at Fak Fak and left my bag on the runway. (Those of us continuing on were kept on the plane during this brief stop.) Then after our plane departed they put the bag on the plane sitting next to us on the runway. I finally got the bag back after hours on the phone with Lion Air, but not until the end of our 12 day liveaboard cruise on the Tambora. Lion Air was totally unhelpful throughout all of this ordeal. During the flights on Lion Air the seats were so close together I could not hold a small paperback in front of my chest to read it. And the temperature in the cabin was so low I was practically hypothermic by the time we got to Kaimana. I will be back diving in Indonesia again, and I hope soon, but I will do everything I can to avoid having to fly on Lion Air again.

 

[scorpiofish]

It used to be worse. Some of the now defunct airlines were a bit sketchy, e.g. Adam Air and Merpati. The last Merpati crash in Kaimana killed quite a few people. We flew Merpati a long time ago and thought it was fine before we knew their track record. There quite a few airlines left off the list.

According to a story told to me by someone else, who had a guest that worked for an FAA type organization, most of the Indonesian accidents could be categorized as pilot errors. It seems they are poorly trained to handle out of the ordinary or difficult situations. Weather and equipment failures are not handled well and that the pilots will always choose to land regardless of conditions.

 

[texswamper]

It used to be worse. Some of the now defunct airlines were a bit sketchy, e.g. Adam Air and Merpati. The last Merpati crash in Kaimana killed quite a few people. We flew Merpati a long time ago and thought it was fine before we knew their track record. There quite a few airlines left off the list.

According to a story told to me by someone else, who had a guest that worked for an FAA type organization, most of the Indonesian accidents could be categorized as pilot errors. It seems they are poorly trained to handle out of the ordinary or difficult situations. Weather and equipment failures are not handled well and that the pilots will always choose to land regardless of conditions.

This is an older thread, but I wanted to give a very recent experience to this discussion. Airline safety ratings definitely pushes who we choose to fly. Living in Jakarta, we have always chosen Garuda. Three weeks ago we were on our way to Sorong for our trip aboard the Dewi. We had to leave Jakarta at midnight for our first leg to Makassar. We were to land about 3:15am and we were going to be landing in a storm. On our final approach I was looking out this window and just as we were getting ready to set down, the pilot quickly took the plane back up and we flew through this terrible storm for the next 15 minutes without any explanation from the flight deck or flight attendants. Of course, all I could think about was the Air Asia crash into the Java sea in a thunderstorm! I prayed for those two pilots more than I've ever prayed for pilots but I was so happy to finally be on the ground when he tried it the second time! lol I'm hoping that he was a very skilled pilot who had to make a last minute decision & did it well, but instances like these make me really think about who I'll trusting my life with when we fly around Indonesia. Everyone just has to make decisions that they are comfortable with and be at peace about it. We still have more places to dive while we live here so I have to be ready to fly.

 

[billt4sf]

An update:

EU Lifts IranAir, Indonesia's Lion Air from Safety Blacklist | Jakarta Globe

Brussels. The European Commission said Iranian state carrier IranAir can resume flights in the EU, along with Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air, a major buyer of Airbus and Boeing jets, which has been removed from a safety blacklist.

The decision could potentially lead Lion Air to buy more planes, analysts have said.

Following a visit to Iran by the EU executive in April, most of IranAir's aircraft have been allowed to resume operations in the European Union, the Commission said in a statement on Thursday.

As some of its aircraft are still banned IranAir will technically still be on the blacklist, however.

"I am happy to announce that we are now also able to allow most aircraft from IranAir back into European skies," said EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc.

The EU executive also removed Indonesia's Citilink, Batik Air and all Zambian airlines from the blacklist.

Reuters

 

[Adelaar Cruises]

An update:

EU Lifts IranAir, Indonesia's Lion Air from Safety Blacklist | Jakarta Globe

Brussels. The European Commission said...can resume flights in the EU, along with Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air, a major buyer of Airbus and Boeing jets, which has been removed from a safety blacklist.

The EU executive also removed Indonesia's Citilink, Batik Air and all Zambian airlines from the blacklist.
Reuters

This is good news for Indonesia!

Lion Air already has two 747-400 and three Airbus A330-300 aircraft already, maybe they can begin some long range nonstop flights from the EU into Bali or Manado (Sorong is wishful thinking)?

That would be nice, 1 less stop getting you that much closer to our world famous diving!