In 2004, more than one-fifth of the world’s air accidents occurred in Africa, whereas the continent accounted for just 4.5 percent of all flights. In 2006, African carriers lost 4.31 aircraft per million departures, compared with 0.65 worldwide. Some commentators have ascribed this bad record to the use of old or inferior aircraft; however, in recent years fleets have undergone extensive renewal.
Much more significant is that so many aircraft are flown by small, poorly regulated fringe carriers. Their pilots are poorly trained and regularly work long hours in a dangerous operating environment—a formula for pilot error. Several international organizations have identified poor regulatory oversight as the top threat to safety in Africa, followed by inadequate safety management. All regions of Africa perform worse than the world average in all the critical elements of safety implementation—in most cases by a factor of two.
TThese deficiencies are highly correlated with accident rates, suggesting that institutional failings explain much of the poor African accident record. Because the problem is a regional one, pooling scarce human resources into relatively independent and well-staffed regional civil aviation authorities offers a promising way forward.