Johannesburg — THE number of aircraft accidents reported this year has dropped significantly since last year when 23 people died in a spate of accidents in September and October.

The drop was largely the result of the past year's intervention by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and other industry bodies to improve safety . T his year only a little more than 80 accidents have been recorded, two of which involved large aircraft. Last year more than 140 accidents were reported, 13 involving large aircraft.

Colin Jordaan, CEO and commissioner of the CAA, speaking at the third n ational s afety s eminar held in Kempton Park on Friday, praised the industry for taking up the challenge and instituting numerous initiatives to control the number of accidents.

These included the general aviation strategic initiative committee that was set up to respond to the findings of accident investigations.

In probing the cause of accidents, delegate after delegate agreed that human error played a major role.

Gaoussou Konate, regional director of safety operations and infrastructure at the International Air Transport Association, said 50% of accidents were related to aircraft handling errors followed by procedural errors (45%), communication errors ( 18%) and incapacitation or fatigue ( less than 5%).

Veteran airline pilot Scully Levin said many accidents are attributable to human factors.

"Poor decision- making by pilots is often the cause. Moreover, poor judg ment chains are not recognised and then broken timeously.

"In addition, single pilot operations depend on one lone pilot to manage risk, thus increasing the level of risk." Levin said one way to address this was to provide more training and supervision for general aviation pilots.

"There is not the same support that you get in the South African Air Force or in the airlines."

Rennie van Zyl, the CAA's acting executive of accident and incident investigations, said that there were no new causes of accidents but a global repetition of causes. "What we have observed is that it is only the circumstances that may vary."

In a bid to strengthen and assert its independence from the CAA, the Department of Transport would soon begin setting up a separate aviation accident investigation unit. The unit would appoint a chairman later this year to head the board.