South Africa just scored 94.99% on the International Civil Aviation Organization's safety oversight assessment, placing it seventh in the world and first in Africa. It's a result the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) celebrated, with commissioner Poppy Khoza calling it a national achievement. Yet behind the headline number sits a worrying trend.
During the 2025/26 financial year, the total number of accidents actually fell — but fatal accidents jumped from four to 17, and deaths rose from seven to 24. Nearly all of that pain is concentrated in general aviation: private flying, flight training, business aviation, aerial surveying and emergency medical operations. Khoza was quick to point out that these aren't just statistics, but lives lost and families left grieving.
The contrast with scheduled commercial aviation is stark. South Africa's airlines have gone nearly four decades without a fatal accident, which is one reason the country keeps scoring so well on international oversight assessments. For anyone booking a domestic flight on a scheduled carrier, the safety picture remains excellent.
Why the gap? General aviation covers exactly the kind of flying where human factors weigh heaviest — small aircraft, training flights, decision-making under pressure. SACAA's investigations continue to point to flight crew error, mechanical and engine failures, and structural problems as recurring factors.
The regulator is now rolling out a general aviation safety strategy developed with industry stakeholders. It targets human factors, decision-making and operational safety through accident-reduction seminars, risk management initiatives and safety publications. In parallel, amendments to the Civil Aviation Act — gazetted this week — will separate aircraft accident investigations from SACAA itself, a move meant to make investigations more independent, while also expanding the regulator's environmental oversight duties.
One shadow remains over the authority's own record: the January 2020 crash of SACAA aircraft ZS-CAR, which killed three of its employees. SACAA still disputes parts of the final investigation report issued by Ethiopian authorities in January 2022, and a judicial inquest will now examine the circumstances of the deaths.
For travellers, the takeaway is straightforward: commercial flights within South Africa remain among the safest you can book, backed by a regulator that ranks at the top of the continent. The surge in general aviation fatalities is a real concern, but it mostly affects private, training and specialised operations rather than the airline seats holidaymakers occupy. Still, a regulator willing to reform its own investigation structures and confront a rising death toll is a good sign for the sector's direction.
