Link Between Airlines’ Profitability and Accident Rates

“Airlines’ accident risk is highest when they are performing very close to their financial targets, according to a study…”

See source article.

I found this study interesting as I’ve direct experience in the aviation field and was made redundant due to my questioning (internally) of safety violations and scheduling which inflicted chronic crew fatigue.

While I would agree with many of the authors statements there is one which, I feel, is blatantly inaccurate and/or naive: “I don’t think people are saying consciously, ‘We really want to hit this financial target, let’s cut back on our safety expenditures,’”

In my experience omitting/delaying safety inspections, repairs on aircraft and both falsifying crew rest/duty periods and scheduling crew to the maxim limits of said rest and duty periods are clearly driven by profits.

I need to say my aviation experiences were in America based with flying in North America. There is a very common saying in commercial (American) aviation which sums up the worst of the industry:

“It’s cheaper to replace the flight crew than the aircraft.”