SEOUL (Reuters) - Pilots need to be better able to voice safety concerns freely without fear of punishment to reduce the chances of aviation accidents, the head of the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations (IFALPA) said.

"Learning from accidents is not good enough. We need to learn from the successful operations that happened every day," IFALPA President Amornvaj Mansumitchai said in an interview on Thursday.

This should be done through non-punitive reporting systems, robust data collection, and unbiased accident investigations, Mansumitchai said on the sidelines of the federation's annual conference in Seoul.

Aviation safety has improved markedly over decades based on open sharing of information, with investigations intended to draw lessons rather than assign blame.

IFALPA, which represents around 148,000 pilots in 70 countries, has for several years said many aviation incidents go unreported because those involved are fearful of management or regulatory authority penalties. It is campaigning for what it calls a positive safety culture in aviation that adopts non-punitive safety reporting and data collection.

"Without trust, we never get the facts. Nobody wants to say out loud how close they were," Mansumitchai said.

Recent deadly crashes in Kazakhstan, South Korea and the United States and the non-fatal flip of a crash-landed jet in Canada have thrust aviation safety into the spotlight.

Furthermore, aviation bodies have raised the alarm over the number of delayed or non-existent final reports into accidents globally, identifying judicial interference or a lack of political willingness to disclose certain narratives as key factors.

Guidelines from the U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) say states should not use safety data or information for disciplinary, civil, administrative or criminal proceedings.