Beyond comfort and fuel efficiency, safety is the priority for aircraft manufacturers and
airlines across the globe. While flying is safe in comparison to many other forms of transport,
accidents do happen. With this in mind, let’s take a look at the safest
airliners utilizing data from 1970 onward. The data we examine in this video runs to 2019
and only considers aircraft that have had at least 50 production units.
When looking at the number of fatalities recorded by the Aviation Safety Network on one single
aircraft type, the Boeing 747 stands out among the rest, with nearly 3,000 deaths.
The jumbo has been in service since 1970, and over 1,500 units have been produced.
The plane is followed by its widebody counterpart, the Airbus A300, with over 1,000 fatalities.
Of course, it’s important to note that many of the accidents causing deaths weren’t associated
with the design and build-quality of the aircraft itself. For instance, the Tenerife
airport disaster on March 27th, 1977, which saw two 747s collide resulting in 583 fatalities,
was due to human mistakes. Weather and other factors certainly also come into play.
Nonetheless, at a first glance, we can see that aircraft built by the likes of Bombardier,
ATR, and Embraer have far fewer fatalities than the powerhouses of Boeing and Airbus.
To get a clearer picture of the safety of aircraft, factors such as service time and
number of seats need to be taken into account. Therefore, the website turbli has used a metric
that takes the number of fatalities divided by the number seats and by the service time.
Thus, the fatal accident rate is shown in the graph here.
The recently introduced 737 MAX 8 has the highest rate. Nonetheless, the subsequent grounding,
tests, fixes, and recertification should see its rate come down substantially in the coming years.
The Sukhoi Superjet 100 is another plane that has seen fatal crashes after its recent introduction.
When looking at veteran types, the turboprop DHC-7, DHC-8-100, ATR-42, and ATR-72 have
somewhat high accident rates. Meanwhile, many members of the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737
family mainstays have had low fatal accident records. Nonetheless, more recent incidents
such as the China Eastern 737-800 and Sriwijaya 737-500 crashes are not included in this chart.
Modern flagships such as the 787 and A350 have yet to experience damage beyond repair.
The same can be said for several other new models. However, praise should be given to
older aircraft such as the 737-600, 737-900, CRJ700, and CRJ900 that have never had a
hull loss despite years of continuous service. When comparing fatality and hull loss factors,
Embraer's rates are low across the board. The Embraer ERJ series has had more than
1,200 units built and a service life that began in April 1997. Therefore,
the 130/140/145 members of the family are among the safest airliners in history. The A340 is
also one of the safest, with no fatalities to the 380 units since its introduction in March 1993.
All in all, when it comes to Airbus, the A220, A319neo, A320neo, A321neo, A340, A350,
and A380 so far have a clean record. The same can be said for Boeing and its 717, 747-8, and 787.
What are your thoughts about the safest airliners in history?
Let us know what you think in the comment section.