SAFETY

Safety Report

2021 Edition
 Foreword

A Coordinated, Risk-based Approach

to Improving Global Aviation Safety
The air transport industry plays a major role in global economic activity and development. One of the key
elements to maintaining the vitality of civil aviation is to ensure safe, secure, efficient and environmentally
sustainable operations at the global, regional and national levels.

A specialized agency of the United Nations, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was established
in 1944 to promote the safe and orderly development of international civil aviation throughout the world.

ICAO promulgates Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) to facilitate harmonized regulations in
aviation safety, security, efficiency and environmental protection on a global level. Today, ICAO manages
over 12 000 SARPs across 19 Annexes and five Procedures for Air Navigation Services (PANS) to the
Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention), many of which are constantly evolving in
tandem with latest developments and innovations. ICAO also serves as the primary forum for cooperation
in all fields of civil aviation among its 193 Member States.

Improving the safety of the global air transport system is ICAO’s guiding and most fundamental strategic
objective. The Organization works constantly to address and enhance global aviation safety through the
following coordinated activities:

• Policy and standardization;

• Monitoring of key safety trends and indicators;

• Safety analysis;

• Specific programmes to address safety issues; and

• Implementation support.

The ICAO Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP) presents the strategy in support of the prioritization and
continuous improvement of aviation safety. The GASP sets the goals and targets, and outlines key safety
enhancement initiatives (SEIs) aimed at improving safety at the international, regional and national levels.

This edition of the safety report provides accident statistics and analysis for the year of 2020 as well as
the updates on safety indicators associated with the goals and targets set in the GASP. Results of analysis
from the 2016–2020 reports are used as benchmarks for comparison, however it should be noted that
data presented in this report may not exactly match earlier editions due to updates during the intervening
period.

ICAO Safety Report | 2021 Edition 2

© 2021, International Civil Aviation Organization
Published in Montréal, Canada
International Civil Aviation Organization
999 Robert-Bourassa Boulevard
Montréal, Quebec, Canada
H3C 5H7

www.icao.int

Disclaimer

This report makes use of information, including air transport and safety-
related data and statistics, which is furnished to the International Civil
Aviation Organization (ICAO) by third parties. All third party content was
obtained from sources believed to be reliable and was accurately reproduced
in the report at the time of printing. However, ICAO specifically does not
make any warranties or representations as to the accuracy, completeness,
or timeliness of such information and accepts no liability or responsibility
arising from reliance upon or use of the same. The views expressed in this
report do not necessarily reflect individual or collective opinions or official
positions of ICAO Member States.

Note: The ICAO regional aviation safety group (RASG) regions are used in
the report and are listed in Appendix 1. This document focuses primarily
on scheduled commercial flights. The scheduled commercial flights data
was based on the Official Airline Guide (OAG) combined with internal ICAO
preliminary estimates.

ICAO Safety Report | 2021 Edition 3

 Contents

Contents
Executive Summary...........................................................................................................................5

Accident Statistics and Analysis – Scheduled Commercial Air Transport................................................8

Overall Safety Performance Indicator – Global Accident Rate.............................................................8

Accident and Fatality Trend..............................................................................................................9

Accidents Overview by Occurrence Category.................................................................................. 10

High-risk Categories of Occurrences..............................................................................................12

Regional Accident Statistics........................................................................................................... 14

Accidents by RASG Region............................................................................................................. 16

Appendix 1...................................................................................................................................... 17

Regional Aviation Safety Group (RASG) Regions............................................................................... 17

Appendix 2......................................................................................................................................19

List of Scheduled Commercial Accidents in 2020............................................................................19

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 Executive Summary

Executive Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to international air transport. ICAO reports
that passenger totals plunged by 60 per cent with just 1.8 billion passengers taking to the air during 2020,
the first year of the pandemic, compared to 4.5 billion in 2019. As indicated in Chart 1, the traffic of
flight departures for scheduled commercial operations dropped by 42 per cent with around 22.5 million
departures in 2020, compared to more than 38 million in 2019.

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Traffic (million) 34.89 36.50 38.09 38.79 22.47

Chart 1. | Global traffic of flight departures : 2016–2020 scheduled commercial operations

Yearly accident statistics indicate a decrease in both the total number of accidents as well as the global
accident rate in 2020. From 2019 to 2020, there was a 58 per cent decrease in the total number of
accidents, as reported by States. The global accident rate of 2.14 accidents per million departures
in 2020 also decreased by 27 per cent from the 2019 rate of 2.94 accidents per million departures.
The accidents used for these statistics were reviewed and validated by the ICAO Occurrence Validation
Study Group (OVSG), formerly Safety Indicators Study Group (SISG), and involved scheduled commercial
operations of aircraft with a certified maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of over 5 700 kg as defined in
ICAO Annex 13 — Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation.

114
98
88
75 Number of accidents

48 Accident rate

2.15 2.41 2.57 2.94 2.14

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Chart 2. | Accident records: 2016–2020 scheduled commercial operations

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 Executive Summary

In 2020, scheduled commercial air transport accidents resulted in 298 fatalities representing an increase
from 239 in 2019. The number of fatal accidents decreased from six in 2019 to four in 2020. Figure 1
shows the number of fatal accidents by ICAO Regional Aviation Safety Group (RASG) region. Charts 3 and 4
present data related to accidents of scheduled commercial operations.

RASG-EUR: 1

RASG-MID: 1
RASG-PA : 0
RASG-APAC: 2

RASG-AFI : 0

Figure 1. | Number of fatal accidents by RASG region in 2020

514

Fatalities
298
239 Fatal accidents
182

7 50 5 11 6 4

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Chart 3. | Fatal accident records: 2016–2020 scheduled commercial operations

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Executive Summary

1000

Fatalities
100
Number of accidents

Departures (million)

Fatal accidents
10
Accident rate

1
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Chart 4. | Historical trends for scheduled commercial operations

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 Accident Statistics and Analysis

Accident Statistics and Analysis –

Scheduled Commercial Air Transport
Overall Safety Performance Indicator – Global Accident Rate
ICAO’s global accident rate provides an overall indicator of safety performance for air transport operation.
The accident rate is based on scheduled commercial operations involving fixed-wing aircraft with a
maximum take-off weight (MTOW) above 5 700 kg. Aircraft accidents are reviewed and validated by the
ICAO Occurrence Validation Study Group (OVSG) using definitions provided in Annex 13.

Data on departures is collated by ICAO’s Air Transport Bureau and comprises scheduled commercial
operations that involve the transportation of passengers, cargo and mail for remuneration. Estimates
are made where data has not been provided by States, and as new data is provided to ICAO, it will be
incorporated into the database. It is worth noting that this may cause small changes to the calculated
rates from year to year.

Chart 5 below shows the global accident rate trend (per million departures) over the previous five years,
with 2020 having an accident rate of 2.14 accidents per million departures, a decrease of 27 per cent
from the previous year.

Scheduled commercial accidents in 2020 are listed in Appendix 2.

2.94
2.57
2.41
2.15 2.14

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Chart 5. | Global accident rates (accidents per million departures)

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 Accident Statistics and Analysis

Accident and Fatality Trend

The number of worldwide accidents and fatal accidents on scheduled commercial flights during the
2016–2020 period are shown in Chart 6.

114

98
88
75
Accidents

48 Fatal Accidents

11
7 5 6 4

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Chart 6. | Accident trend

Between the years 2016 to 2019, the trend of the annual number of accidents has increased. The lowest
count recorded was 75 accidents in 2016 and the highest was 114 in 2019. Compared to the previous
year, the number of accidents significantly decreased in 2020 while the traffic of air transport plummeted
42 per cent due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of fatal accidents per year decreased from six in
2019 to four in 2020. Chart 7 shows the number of fatalities associated with the above-mentioned fatal
accidents, which increased from 239 in 2019 to 298 in 2020.

514

298
239 Fatalities
182

50

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Chart 7. | Fatalities trend

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 Accident Statistics and Analysis

Accidents Overview by Occurrence Category

ICAO Member States are required to report accidents and serious incidents in accordance with Annex 13
through the ICAO Accident/Incident Data Reporting (ADREP) system. The OVSG validates and categorizes
the accidents for commercial operations, including scheduled and non-scheduled, involving aircraft with
MTOW over 5 700 kg using the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST)/ICAO Common Taxonomy Team
(CICTT) taxonomy for occurrence categories. Detailed information about the CICTT occurrence category
can be found in Appendix 2.

Charts 8 to 11 provide an accidents overview for scheduled commercial operations by CICTT occurrence
categories in 2020. The occurrence category of turbulence encounter (TURB) accounted for the most
accidents that caused 14 serious injuries to aircrews or passengers. All the fatal accidents involved the
following categories: abnormal runway contact (ARC) with total ten accidents, 98 fatalities, five serious
injuries, nine aircraft with substantial damage and one aircraft destroyed; runway excursion (RE) with total
nine accidents, 24 fatalities, 77 serious injuries, six aircraft with substantial damage and three aircraft
destroyed; and security related (SEC) with 176 fatalities and 1 aircraft destroyed.

14

10
9

3 3
2
1 1 1 1 1 1 1

AMAN ARC BIRD CABIN F-NI GCOL LOC-I RAMP RE SCF-NP SEC TURB USOS

Chart 8. | Total accidents by occurrence category

24
176
98

ARC

RE

SEC

Chart 9. | Total fatalities by occurrence category

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Accident Statistics and Analysis

77

14
4 5
1 1

AMAN ARC CABIN RAMP RE TURB

Chart 10. | Total serious injuries by occurrence category

Destroyed

6 Substantial

3 3
2
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

ARC BIRD F-NI GCOL LOC-I RAMP RE SCF-NP SEC TURB USOS

Chart 11. | Aircraft damage by occurrence category

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 Accident Statistics and Analysis

High-risk Categories of Occurrences

ICAO has identified five high-risk categories of occurrences (HRCs) as global safety priorities in the
2020–2022 edition of the Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP, Doc 10004):

a) controlled flight into terrain (CFIT);

b) loss of control in-flight (LOC-I);
c) mid-air collision (MAC);
d) runway excursion (RE); and
e) runway incursion (RI).

ICAO uses these HRCs as a baseline in its safety analysis to achieve a continuous reduction of operational
safety risks (Goal 1) and its linked targets and indicators, as presented in the GASP.

Chart 12 below shows that in 2020, the five HRCs for scheduled commercial air transport operations
represented 8.1 per cent of all fatalities, 50 per cent of fatal accidents, 20.8 per cent of the total number
of accidents and 32.3 per cent of the accidents that destroyed or caused substantial damage to aircraft.

Fatalities 8.1% 91.9%

Fatal Accidents 50.0% 50.0%

HRCs

Others
Accidents 20.8% 79.2%

Accidents with Aircraft

32.3% 67.7%
Substantially Damaged

Chart 12. | HRC accident distribution

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 Accident Statistics and Analysis

A breakdown of the five HRCs in 2020 and the respective distribution of fatalities, fatal accidents
and accidents are shown in Chart 13 below. Accidents related to runway excursion (RE) accounted
for 18.8 per cent of all accidents and 29 per cent of accidents with aircraft substantially damaged
or destroyed in 2020. They also represented half of all fatal accidents with 24 fatalities. There was
one accident related to LOC-I that represented 2.1 per cent of total accidents with no fatalities. There
were no accidents related to controlled flight into terrain (CFIT), mid-air collision (MAC) and runway
incursion (RI) in 2020.

MAC

RI
Fatalities
8.1%
Fatal Accidents
RE 50.0%
18.8%
29.0% Accidents

Accidents with aircraft

CFIT substantially damaged

LOC-I
2.1%

Chart 13. | High-risk category accident overview

ICAO Safety Report | 2021 Edition 13

 Accident Statistics and Analysis

Regional Accident Statistics

To further analyze the state of aviation safety, the accident data for scheduled commercial air transport
operations is categorized according to RASG region, by State of Occurrence. Table 1 and Chart 14
provide details on the state of aviation safety in different RASG regions for 2020 in the context of global
outcomes. The States included in each RASG region used in this report can be found in Appendix 1.

It is worth noting these statistics are based on ADREP data reported by the State of Occurrence in
2020. Partly due to the small number of departures, some regions experience a large fluctuation in the
accident rate from year to year. For this reason, these numbers should be considered in relation to the
total number of accidents to gain an overall perspective.

Estimated Number of Accident rate

RASG Region departures accidents Fatal accidents Fatalities
(per million departures)

Africa-Indian Ocean (AFI) 659 502 4 6.07 nil nil

Asia Pacific (APAC) 8 590 721 10 1.16 2 119
Europe (EUR) 4 504 203 10 2.22 1 3
Middle East (MID) 694 941 4 5.76 1 176
Pan America (PA) 8 021 215 20 2.49 nil nil
WORLD 22 470 582 48 2.14 4 298

Table 1. | Departures, accidents and fatalities by RASG region based on State of Occurrence

PA
MID
EUR
APAC
AFI

AFI APAC EUR MID PA

Traffic (%) 2.9 38.2 20.0 3.1 35.7
Accidents (%) 8.3 20.8 20.8 8.3 41.7
Fatalities (%) 0.0 39.9 1.0 59.1 0.0

Chart 14. | Share of traffic, accidents and fatalities by RASG region

based on State of Occurrence

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 Accident Statistics and Analysis

It is also worth noting that the traffic of flight departures in 2020 significantly decreased from 2019 for
all ICAO RASG regions due to the COVID-19 pandemic as indicated in Chart 15.

AFI APAC EUR MID PA WORLD

Departures (2019) 1,130,861 12,663,222 9,826,990 1,311,340 13,856,870 38,789,283
Departures (2020) 659,502 8,590,721 4,504,203 694,941 8,021,215 22,470,582

Chart 15. | Traffic of flight departures 2019–2020

ICAO Safety Report | 2021 Edition 15

 Accident Statistics and Analysis

Accidents by RASG Region

Chart 16 below shows the percentage of accidents and related fatalities for each ICAO RASG region
based on State of Occurrence for scheduled commercial operations in 2020. States included in each
RASG region are listed in Appendix 1.

100%

Fatalities
80%
Fatal Accidents
60% Accidents

Accidents with aircraft

40% substantially damaged

20%

0%

AFI APAC EUR MID PA

Chart 16. | Accident overview by RASG region

In 2020, the Africa-Indian Ocean (RASG-AFI) and Pan American (RASG-PA) Regions did not experience
fatal accidents. One fatal accident with three fatalities occurred in the European (RASG-EUR) Region. The
Asia Pacific (RASG-APAC) Region experienced two fatal accidents resulting in more than one third of the
total fatalities. One security related fatal accident occurred in the Middle East (RASG-MID) Region, which
caused nearly 60 per cent of the total fatalities for scheduled commercial operations involving aircraft
with MTOW over 5 700 kg.

The RASG-PA Region experienced the most accidents and the highest number of accidents with aircraft
substantially damaged or destroyed.

ICAO Safety Report | 2021 Edition 16

 Appendix 1

Appendix 1
Regional Aviation Safety Group (RASG) Regions

The assignment of States to RASG regions is based on their membership and is adopted in this report
for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of
States by ICAO.

RASG-EUR

RASG-MID
RASG-PA
RASG-APAC

RASG-AFI

RASG-AFI (48)

Angola Congo Ghana Mauritius Somalia

Benin Côte d’Ivoire Guinea Mozambique South Africa
Botswana Democratic Republic Guinea-Bissau Namibia South Sudan
Burkina Faso of the Congo Niger Togo
Kenya
Burundi Djibouti Nigeria Uganda
Lesotho
Cameroon Equatorial Guinea Rwanda United Republic
Eritrea Liberia
Cabo Verde Sao Tome of Tanzania
Eswatini Madagascar and Principe Zambia
Central African
Republic Ethiopia Malawi Senegal Zimbabwe
Chad Gabon Mali Seychelles
Comoros Gambia Mauritania Sierra Leone

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 Appendix 1

RASG-APAC (39)

Afghanistan Democratic People’s Malaysia New Zealand Solomon Islands

Republic of Korea
Australia Maldives Pakistan Sri Lanka
Fiji
Bangladesh Marshall Islands Palau Thailand
India Micronesia
Bhutan Papua New Guinea Timor-Leste
Indonesia (Federated States of)
Brunei Darussalam Philippines Tonga
Japan Mongolia
Cambodia Myanmar Republic of Korea Tuvalu
Kiribati
China Nauru Samoa Vanuatu
Lao People’s
Cook Islands Democratic Republic Nepal Singapore Viet Nam

RASG-EUR (56)

Albania Cyprus Israel North Macedonia Sweden

Algeria Czechia Italy Norway Switzerland
Andorra Denmark Kazakhstan Poland Tajikistan
Armenia Estonia Kyrgyzstan Portugal Tunisia
Austria Finland Latvia Republic of Moldova Turkey
Azerbaijan France Lithuania Romania Turkmenistan
Belarus Georgia Luxembourg Russian Federation Ukraine
Belgium Germany Malta San Marino United Kingdom
Bosnia and Greece Monaco Serbia Uzbekistan
Herzegovina Hungary Montenegro Slovakia
Bulgaria Iceland Morocco Slovenia
Croatia Ireland Netherlands Spain

RASG-MID (15)

Bahrain Iran (Islamic Lebanon Qatar Syrian Arab Republic

Republic of) Libyan Arab United Arab
Egypt Saudi Arabia
Jordan Jamahiriya Emirates
Iraq Kuwait Oman Sudan Yemen

RASG-PA (35)

Antigua and Barbuda Canada El Salvador Nicaragua Suriname

Argentina Chile Grenada Panama Trinidad and Tobago
Bahamas Colombia Guatemala Paraguay United States
Barbados Costa Rica Guyana Peru Uruguay
Belize Cuba Haiti Saint Kitts and Nevis
Venezuela
Bolivia (Plurinational Dominica Honduras Saint Lucia (Bolivarian
State of) Dominican Republic Jamaica Saint Vincent and Republic of)
Brazil Ecuador Mexico the Grenadines

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 Appendix 2

Appendix 2
List of Scheduled Commercial Accidents in 2020
Occurrence
Local date Model State of Occurrence ICAO Region Fatalities category
2020-01-07 Boeing 737-800 Turkey EUR/NAT RE

2020-01-08 Boeing 737-800 Iran, Islamic Republic of MID 176 SEC

2020-01-08 Boeing 737-800 United States NACC RAMP

2020-01-10 Airbus A320-200 United States NACC TURB

2020-01-12 Boeing 737-800 Japan APAC TURB

2020-01-13 Airbus A320-200 Finland EUR/NAT RAMP

2020-01-16 Airbus A380-800 Mozambique ESAF TURB

2020-01-19 Fairchild SA-227-AC Canada NACC LOC-G, RE

2020-01-20 Boeing 767-200 Italy EUR/NAT RAMP

2020-01-20 De Havilland DHC8-300 Canada NACC ARC

2020-01-27 Boeing MD-83 Iran, Islamic Republic of MID RE, ARC, EVAC

2020-01-28 Boeing 737-700 Canada NACC GCOL

2020-01-28 Boeing 737-600 Canada NACC GCOL

2020-01-31 De Havilland DHC8-400 Canada NACC RE

2020-02-01 Boeing 747-400F Saudi Arabia MID ARC

2020-02-01 Airbus A380-800 United States NACC TURB

2020-02-02 Boeing 767-300 Spain EUR/NAT SCF-NP, SCF-PP

2020-02-05 Boeing 737-800 Turkey EUR/NAT 3 RE

2020-02-07 Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR United States NACC TURB

2020-02-07 Boeing 757-200 Iceland EUR/NAT SCF-NP

2020-02-09 Boeing 737-500 Russian Federation EUR/NAT USOS

2020-02-24 Fairchild SA-227-DC Canada NACC LOC-G, RE

2020-02-27 Airbus A321-200 Turkey EUR/NAT ARC

2020-03-21 Boeing 757-200 United States EUR/NAT ARC

2020-04-12 Boeing 737-800 Japan APAC TURB

2020-05-19 Boeing 737-800 United States NACC SCF-NP

2020-05-22 Airbus A320-200 Pakistan APAC 98 ARC

2020-06-14 Airbus A320-200 India APAC TURB

2020-07-09 Embraer ERJ170-200 United States NACC TURB

ICAO Safety Report | 2021 Edition 19

 Appendix 2

List of Scheduled Commercial Accidents in 2019 (continued)

Occurrence
Local date Model State of Occurrence ICAO Region Fatalities category
2020-07-09 Airbus A319-100 Brazil SAM TURB, AMAN

2020-07-14 Boeing 737-800 South Africa ESAF TURB

2020-07-22 Boeing 777-200F China APAC F-NI

2020-07-23 Airbus A310-300 Syrian Arab Republic MID AMAN, MAC

2020-08-07 Boeing 737-800 India APAC 21 ARC, RE

2020-08-12 Airbus A320-200 Spain NACC TURB

2020-08-18 ATR72-200 Senegal WACAF ARC

2020-08-29 Boeing 737-800 Japan APAC Bird

2020-09-30 Boeing 777-200 United States NACC TURB

2020-10-14 Airbus A320-200 Germany EUR/NAT TURB

2020-10-16 Airbus A321-200 Vietnam APAC ARC

2020-10-23 De Havilland DHC8-400 Japan APAC ARC

2020-10-24 Embraer ERJ-145 Bahamas NACC RE

2020-11-14 Mitsubishi CRJ-700ER United States NACC CABIN

2020-11-16 ATR72-200 India APAC ARC

2020-11-26 ATR42-300 Canada NACC RE

2020-11-28 Embraer EMB110 Bahamas NACC ARC

2020-12-02 Boeing 737-500 Somalia ESAF LOC-I, WSTRW, USOS

2020-12-23 Airbus A320-200 United States NACC TURB

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 Appendix 2

CICTT Occurrence Categories

Code Description

ADRM Aerodrome

AMAN Abrupt Maneuver

ARC Abnormal runway contact

BIRD Bird

CABIN Cabin safety events

CFIT Controlled flight into/towards terrain

CTOL Collision with obstacles during takeoff and landing

EVAC Evacuation

F-NI Fire/smoke (non-impact)

F-POST Fire/smoke (post-impact)

GCOL Ground collision

ICE Icing

LOC-I Loss of control in-flight

LOC-G Loss of control-ground

MAC Airprox/ ACAS alert/ loss of separation/ (near) mid-air collisions

OTHR Other

RAMP Ground handling

RE Runway excursion

SCF-NP System/component failure (non-powerplant)

SCF-PP System/component failure (powerplant)

TURB Turbulence encounter

UNK Unknown or undetermined

USOS Undershoot/overshoot

WILD Wildlife

WSTRW Wind shear or thunderstorm

More information about the CICTT occurrence categories can be found at http://www.intlaviationstandards.
org/apex/f?p=240:3:9817194220294::NO::P3_X:OC.

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SAFETY

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