10 of the world's most dangerous airlines

NEW YOYK: Flying was less deadly in 2012 than in any year since 1945, but that does not mean all airlines are equally safe.

The Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre (JACDEC), which collects information about aviation accidents and safety, has published its annual Airline Safety Ranking.

The ratings take into account the number and deadliness of hull loss accidents and serious incidents in the last 30 years of operation in relation to passenger miles flown. The ratings also take into account international safety benchmarks such as the IOSA Audit and the USOAP country factor, along with a time factor, which increases the effect of recent accidents.

The results do not account for the cause of hull losses or whether the airline is at fault, so they are an imperfect measure of safety.

Of 60 ranked airlines, here are the ten with the worst safety records, including the number of hull losses and passenger deaths in these accidents since 1983:

SkyWest Airlines: 3 hull losses; 22 dead

South African Airways: 1 hull loss; 159 dead

Thai Airways International: 5 hull losses; 309 dead

Turkish Airlines: 6 hull losses, 188 dead

Saudia: 4 hull losses; 310 dead

Korean Air: 9 hull losses; 687 dead

GOL Transportes Aéreos: 1 hull loss; 154 dead

Air India: 3 hull losses; 329 dead

TAM Airlines: 6 hull losses; 336 dead

China Airlines: 8 hull losses; 755 dead