S'pore among 5 Asean nations to share key aviation safety data

The aviation authorities in five Asean countries, including Singapore, have inked a deal to share critical safety data on a variety of aviation incidents such as severe turbulence and bird strikes in their airspace, airports or involving their national airlines.

- Kok Yufeng

This comes after several high-profile airline accidents rocked the aviation sector in 2024, heightening consumer concerns over the safety of air travel.

Among these were a fiery runway collision in Japan that killed five people in January, the blowout of a door plug on a Boeing plane shortly after take-off from Portland, Oregon, in the US, and a Singapore Airlines flight meeting severe turbulence over Myanmar that left one dead and dozens hurt.

In a joint statement on Oct 17, the civil aviation authorities of Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand said the new regional safety data-sharing initiative will enable them to better identify safety hazards and trends, and develop mitigating measures to manage risks.

The parties will work towards launching this first-of-its-kind initiative by the end of 2024.