Safety and air accidents in Ecuador

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We will analyze safety and air accidents in Ecuador, that since 1919 have represented more than 800 deceased in more than 40 events.

Air safety in Ecuador

it's not secret, Ecuador went through dark episodes throughout its air history with a series of air accidents that generated great doubts about the safety standards that were applied here.

Category 1

On 1994, It was the most difficult moment in terms of security for the country, lost FAA Category I, what for 12 years totally limited the aeronautical growth of the country and our airlines they could not fly to the United States.

in May 2006, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation – DGAC after the implementation of a system that guarantees the safety of air transport by implementing a Civil Aviation Law, technical regulations, guides and manuals for inspectors, new physical infrastructure, new certification processes for airlines and other regulatory technical details, allowed Ecuador to recover the Category 1.

Category 1 means that the air operators of that country, could initiate or continue service to the United States as normal and be able to participate in reciprocal code-share agreements with United States airlines.

This process that allowed the country to leave behind the Category 2, is based on the International Aviation Safety Assessment program – IASA with high standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization – ICAO. Since that day, Ecuador took a radical turn in security.

Flying now in Ecuador is high and totally safe, but as in the whole industry, it will never be possible to prevent new accidents and incidents from happening, but yes everything to minimize them.

The last audit that Ecuador underwent ended on 2018, whose final results are not yet known, but that there were observations in which the authority should work.

Year 2015 the result of the ICAO audit left Ecuador with very good results, that even in some points exceeds neighboring countries and that are above the world average:

Compared with Colombia, Peru and Chile, our country is superior in the vast majority of aspects to the first two and closely follows Chile, that regionally, It is one of the best results in its audit carried out in the 2017:

In the last moment, some people of opinion have insinuated that Ecuador would not be safe in air operations, but the ICAO audits and every day more airlines flying to Ecuador, confirm that this is not the case.

More of $364 million dollars has invested Ecuador in strengthening the airport network and updating navigation systems, that at the regional level, has one of the most modern and widest coverage.

Geographic factors, weather like the wind and others, make our country a particular place to operate, but despite that, the entire aeronautical system (airlines, airports, authority, services, etc) is highly prepared to face them, and thus ensure the safety of the thousands of passengers and hundreds of air operations that take place every day.

Air accidents in Ecuador

From 1919, year in which accident records begin in the world, Ecuador has lived 48 fatal plane crashes on its territory with 97 total events classified as accidents, which brought as an unfortunate consequence, the death of 877 people reported.

In the records of ASN, the following fatal plane crashes are found. It should be noted, that this registration is only for military and commercial aircraft, no minor aviation or fumigation flights are taken and other records could be missing that were not complete at the time or were not public knowledge:

• The first recorded fatal accident was 17 July 1946 in Cuenca, Curtesa C-46D aircraft registration HC-SCA of ANDESA with 30 dead people.
• 17 accidents have been Air Force, Army or Navy.
• Tame is the airline with the most accidents in Ecuador with 5 accidents and of them, also the most fatal in Ecuador with 119 deceased in Cuenca, boeing plane 737-200 matrícula HC-BIG.
• The years with the most fatal accidents were 1949, 1979 and 1988 with 3 events each.
• From the first accident in 1946, a total of 41 years have had fatal accidents in Ecuador.
• From the 2000, there have only been 5 fatal accidents in Ecuador.

Comparing with the region, Ecuador maintains one of the lowest accident rates, despite the bad times that our aviation experienced years ago:

The statistics also show the positive changes that have been seen in the industry.. High safety standards are maintained by both Ecuadorian airlines, like the international ones that operate here, international category airports, generate high air safety in our country.

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