More than 100 passengers were aboard Air Algerie flight AH5017 from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, to Algiers, which crashed in a remote area of Mali on Thursday.

After the crash of TransAsia Airways flight GE222 in storms in Taiwan, the loss of Malaysia Airlines MH370 over the Indian Ocean and the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, the loss of the Air Algerie flight takes the death toll for the year to approximately 700.

Industry experts are working to comprehend the cluster of tragedies, but some believe there is no evidence of a systemic problem as each crash appears to have had a different cause.

''One of the things that makes me feel better when we look at these events is that, if they all were the same type of event, or the same root cause, then you would say there is a systemic problem here, but each event is unique in its own way,'' said John Beatty, president and chief executive of the Flight Safety Foundation in the US.

Air-safety consultants at Ascend Worldwide say a further 111 deaths this year would make 2014 the most deadly since 2005. However, Ascend's head of safety, Paul Hayes, told Bloomberg that, despite this statistic, ''It's important to look at the long-term trends. What looks likes a 'good' or 'bad' year - let alone just seven months - by itself means nothing.''

Mr Hayes said fatalities in air crashes were now so rare one or two more could completely alter the numbers.

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 after the Boeing 777 doubled back on its route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and disappeared over the India Ocean may have involved pilot malpractice, experts have said.

By contrast, last year, fatal accidents involving commercial air transport were lower than in any other year in the previous decade.

According to the European Aviation Safety Agency, there were 224 air crash deaths in 2013, compared with a yearly average of 703 between 2003 and 2012.

Australian-based aviation security expert Desmond Ross said, statistically, it was still possible to show aviation was the safest form of transport.

''The reality is that flying is still safe,'' he said.

''Some of the most respected organisations in the world are still trying to make this point.''

He said the aviation industry was not going to stop moving forward, but perhaps this year's record of crashes would lead to certain changes.

''I think what is going to happen in all honesty is that there will be a lot of talk about reassessing the air routes of the world, which I do think is a good idea,'' he said.

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