UAE carriers rated among the world’s top 4 safest in a survey of 448 airlines

January 11, 2014

Abu Dhabi, Jan 12: The UAE carriers Emirates and Etihad Airways have been rated among the top four airlines in the world in terms of safety and offering in-flight products in a survey conducted among 448 airlines.

Top of the list is Qantas which has a fatality free record in the jet era (since 1951), followed by Air New Zealand, Emirates and Etihad Airways.

Making up the top ten with seven stars for safety and in-flight product are in alphabetical order: Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Eva Air, Royal Jordanian, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.

AirlineRatings.com’s rating system takes into account a number of different factors related to audits from aviation’s governing bodies and lead associations as well as government audits and the airline’s fatality record.

Of the 448 airlines surveyed, 137 have the top seven-star safety ranking, but almost 50 have just three stars or less.

Qantas was the lead airline with real time monitoring of its engines across its fleet using satellite communications, which has enabled the airline to detect problems before they become a major safety issues.

2013 safety year since 1945

And 2013 was the safest for flying since 1945, with only 269 deaths from 29 accidents.

According to the Aviation Safety Network the results are well below the 10-year average of 32 accidents and 719 fatalities.

The worst accident was the crash of a Tatarstan Boeing 737-500 operating Flight U9-363 from Moscow to Kazan, which killed all 44 passengers and six crew aboard. The 737-500 was on its second approach to land in strong winds on November 17 and was about to go around for a third time when it hit the runway and exploded in flames.

Tatarstan, a small regional airline from central Russia has not completed the critical International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA). Airlines that have completed IOSA have a safety record 77 per cent better than those which have not.

On October 17, 49 passengers and crew lost their lives when a Lao Airlines ATR72 crashed while on approach to Pakse in Laos. Flight QV301 left Vientiane almost four hours late because of bad weather at the destination airport. It took off at 2.45pm local time and on descent to land hit a severe rain squall associated with tropical storm Nari which had battered the Philippines.

Like Tatarstan, Lao Airlines was only rated as a four-star (out of seven) airline by AirlineRatings.com in part because it had not completed IOSA. Other major airlines in SE-Asia that have not completed IOSA include; Air Bagan; Cebu Pacific; Lion Air and Merpati Air.

The most miraculous escape was for the 304 passengers and crew that walked away from the spectacular crash of the Asiana Boeing 777 at San Francisco International Airport in July. Only three passengers died, when the Boeing 777 hit the runway sea wall and flipped over.

Worst Crashes

Date Aircraft Airline Fatalities Location

Jan 29 CRJ SCAT 21 Almaty Airport. Kazakhstan

July 7 DHC-3T Turbine Otter Rediske Air 10 Soldotna Airport, USA

Oct 3 Embraer Brasilia Associated 16 Lagos, Nigeria

Oct 14 Cessna 208B AereoServicio 14 Loreto Airport. Mexico

Oct 16 ATR-72-212A Lao Airlines 49 Pakse Airport, Laos

Nov 17 Boeing 737 Tatarstan 50 Kazan Airport. Russia

Nov 29 Embraer ERJ 190 LAM 33 Bwabwata NP Zambia

Ten Best Airlines

1. Qantas

2. Air New Zealand

3. Emirates

4. Etihad

5. Cathay Pacific

6. Singapore Airlines

7. Virgin Atlantic

8. EVA Air

9. All Nippon Airways

10. Royal Jordanian

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

Comments