Safety top priority for aviation industry: IATA

GENEVA - The head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said here on Wednesday that the aviation industry has been joining efforts to make safety as the top priority, and would continue to go in this direction.

On the occasion of releasing the association's industry outlook forecasts for 2014, Tony Tyler, IATA's Director General and CEO, expressed deepest sympathy to all those affected by the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Tyler noted that as for the incident, IATA, as an industry association rather than investigator nor regulator, would "provide useful background and context where necessary."

"More importantly, once the authorities have determined the cause of this apparent tragedy, we will work with our members and other stakeholders to apply any lessons learned so as to help ensure that whatever may have happened to MH370 is not repeated," said Tyler.

He underscored that aviation is a safe industry, with some 3.3 billion people expected to travel by air this year, or 9 million people a day.

Flight MH370 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew vanished early Saturday on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing after losing contact with air traffic control in waters between Malaysia and Vietnam. Two-thirds of the passengers on board the plane were Chinese. However, no trace of the plane have been found.