Amsterdam, Jan 2 (IANS): The year 2018 saw a sharp rise in fatalities from air crashes compared with 2017, but 2018 was still the ninth safest year on record, reports said.
According to Netherlands-based Aviation Safety Network (ASN), airliner accidents killed 556 persons in 2018, compared with 44 in 2017, the BBC reported on Wednesday.
The worst civilian accident in 2018 was when a Lion Air plane crashed in Indonesia in October, killing 189.
The year 2017 was the safest in history for commercial airlines with no passenger jet crashes recorded.
However, the picture has been improving generally over the past 20 years.