Federal government records almost 10,000 incidents in commercial aviation
Published: Thursday, May 2nd 2024, 11:40
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Last year, 24 percent more incidents in commercial aviation in Switzerland were reported to the Federal Office of Civil Aviation than in 2022. In total, the federal government dealt with around 10,000 incidents.
These included an aircraft damaged during ground handling and a near-collision between two aircraft in the air. A collision with birds was also investigated, according to the annual safety statistics published by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) on Thursday.
GPS malfunctions were even recorded 55 percent more than in 2022. The number of incidents involving GPS malfunctions has therefore quadrupled since 2019. In 2023, the FOCA received over 2100 reports.
The airline Swiss, for example, registers so-called GPS spoofing almost daily on its routes to Asia, Southeast Asia and when flying over the Middle East, as was recently reported. Spoofing occurs particularly frequently over war zones such as Ukraine and the Middle East.
Incidents involving lasers and drones on the rise
Other reports have also increased since 2019, according to the FOCA. The main causes include more large-scale interference with GPS signals on aircraft and the increased use of lasers and drones. Incidents involving drones were reported ten percent more last year. There were also more laser attacks on commercial flights.
According to the FOCA, there were also two accidents involving a total of five fatalities in recreational aviation: one accident involved the crash of a small aircraft in November near Grenchen SO, in which both occupants died.
Three other people died when a small plane crashed on the Jura mountain range on approach to the airfield in La-Chaux-de-Fonds NE in May, as confirmed by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency.
In the commercial aviation sector, on the other hand, no fatalities were recorded in Switzerland in 2023.
©Keystone/SDA
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