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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Travel
Milo Boyd

Most dangerous countries for air travel - see full global list of banned airlines

Airlines from several countries are deemed so unsafe they're banned from operating in European airspace.

Last week 72 people are believed to have died when a Yeti Airlines plane crashed in Nepal, the country's worst air disaster in three decades.

Officials said 53 of the passengers were Nepalese, along with five Indians, four Russians, two Koreans and one Brit, among a number of other casualties.

The likelihood of dying or getting injured during a commercial flight is extremely rare, with one fatal aircraft incident in every 4.17 million flights flown last year.

While you are much, much more likely to die in a car than a plane crash, many people find flying to be a terrifying experience.

Dozens of people lost their lives in the Yeti Airlines crash (BIJAYA NEUPANE/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Different airlines do have different safety records, so it might be worth checking them out.

The EU keeps a list of airlines deemed too unsafe to operate within the bloc - as well as the UK - which is the closest thing out there to a definitive list of countries with dangerous aviation industries.

Countries that have all of their airlines currently banned by the EU

  1. Afghanistan
  2. Armenia
  3. Angola
  4. Congo
  5. Democratic Republic of Congo
  6. Djibouti
  7. Equatorial Guinea
  8. Eritrea
  9. Kyrgyzstan
  10. Liberia
  11. Libya
  12. Nepal
  13. São Tomé and Príncipe
  14. Sierra Leone
  15. Sudan

The EU also black bans six specific airlines from other parts of the world, including Venezuela's Avior Airlines, Suriname's Blue Wing Airlines, Iran's Iran Aseman Airlines, Iraq's Iraqi Airways, Nigeria's Med-View Airlines, and Zimbabwe's eponymous Zimbabwe Airlines.

Countries find themselves on the list if their safety standards are not considered high enough by the EU.

In Equatorial Guinea for example, there have only been two fatal crashes reported in history - in 2005, when 60 people died in an accident at Malabo Airport, and a much smaller accident in 2008.

However, all craft from the country are banned from operating in the EU due to "safety oversight by the aviation authorities" in the nation.

Equally 12 years ago all Afghan airlines were banned from operating in European airspace because the state was deemed to have failed to set up appropriate safety protocols by the EU Air Safety Committee.

Some countries have found themselves on and then off the banned list.

The aftermath of a 2020 Pakistan International Airline crash (REHAN KHAN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Pakistani airlines were banned from EU airspace in 2020 after a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A320 crashed in the suburbs of Karachi.

That ban was recently lifted however.

If you are scared of flying then you likely fall into a one of a number of categories, according to aviation ace Paul Tizzard.

For many people, the horror of getting on a commercial jet comes as soon as the doors close and getting off the aircraft is no longer possible - in short, a fear of losing control.

A potentially effective way to control this fear is by having a check-list which runs through everything that is likely to happen on a flight to help gain a sense of power, Paul explained.

He told The Mirror: "A flight checklist of every step of the flight from check-in to the other end, people find that helpful because it's very logical.

"Knowledge is power is the cliche. You can tick off the sounds that can be enough to get somebody to do a flight."

Paul also suggests learning breathing techniques (detailed in episode 44 of his podcast ) that can help to steady the nerves.

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