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Africa accounts for only 4 per cent of the world's air traffic but nearly a third of the world's air disasters occur on the continent, a top aviation official said, and the dismal situation has prompted aviation officials to decide to tighten safety standards and collaborate on crash investigations.

In a three day meeting in this West African capital, aviation officials from across the continent decided Thursday to form regional organizations to investigate all air crashes, said Latta Gnama, director of the Civil Aviation Organization of Togo.

Officials say Africa's disproportionate share of aircraft disasters is often attributed to bad equipment, poor maintenance and failure to adhere to safety standards. Poor infrastructure and emergency response services in many African countries can lead to greater fatalities.

Aviation expert Mwangi wa Kamau said his African Civil Aviation Agency, based in Windhoek, Namibia, has struggled to bring African countries into compliance with international safety standards. He said he witnessed poor safety practices in his work as chief aviation accident investigator in his native Kenya and in Namibia.

Congo has experienced more fatal crashes than any other African country since 1945, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

There have been more than 20 fatal plane crashes in Congo since 1996. Most of the planes in the central African country are aging and from the former Soviet Union.

One of the more recent Congo crashes occurred when a DC-9 skidded off the runway during takeoff and crashed into a neighbourhood in an eastern town, killing at least 44 people. The condition of the runway is suspected of contributing to the crash on April 15, 2008. Lava flow from a volcano eruption several years before oozed onto the runway and solidified, cutting its length by more than half to less than a mile (0.61 kilometers).

The causes of some other recent crashes remain a mystery.

• Yemenia Flight 626 plunged into the ocean off East Africa on June 30, killing 152 people. Only a teenage girl survived. Investigators have not determined the cause of the crash, partly because the black boxes recovered from the Indian Ocean were damaged.

• On May 5, 2007, a Kenya Airways plane nose-dived into a swamp in Cameroon, killing all 114 people aboard after less than a minute in flight. The wreckage was not found until more than 40 hours after the crash. There is still no official ruling on the cause of the crash.

According to the International Air Transport Association, Africa has the highest incidence of the most typical type of crash – runway crashes that occur during takeoff or landing – with nearly 4 cases per million flights, the highest incidence in the world.