The latest planes of Boeing 737 family were still made back in 1988, and more than 500 of these airplanes are in use until now. The Boeing 737 JT&D, which belonged to I Tec Air, crashed last year in Kyrgyzstan; it happened shortly after the European Union prohibited this company to fly to Europe, because of the tremendously low level of security. Such incidents help to explain why this model is on the top list of airplanes, which are so frequently prone to crashes. Old planes need more intensive care than the new ones. However, they are in operation by budget air companies, which do not have enough funds for normal technical service and teaching pilots.
Using the data of Ascend London insurance consultancy the BusinessWeek edition made the list of the most dangerous planes on the basis of the air crash quantity with fatal outcome. The rate contained the models of planes, which are in operation all over the world in more than 100 units. Air crashes connected with terrorism were not included.
1. Boeing 737 JT8D
One crash per: 507 500 flying hours
Years of production: 1967-1988
Planes in operation: 517
The first version of Boeing 737 is recognized to be the most wrecking plane in the world. One air crash with a fatal outcome covers 507 500 flying hours. The less is the figure the more is the probability of crash. 517 more planes of this model are still in operation in poor countries. About 30- year-old Boeing 737 JT8D, that was in operation by Itek Air company, crashed not far from Bishkek in August 2008. 68 people died in that crash.
2. IL-76
One crash per: 549 900 flying hours
Years of production: 1974 – present
Planes in operation: 247
This model is mostly met in the countries of the former Soviet Union, Near East and Africa. One of the biggest air crashes of IL 76 happened in 2003. The crashed plane belonged to Iranian air company Iran Revolutionary Guard, 275 people died in that crash.
3. Tu-154
One crash per: 1 041 000 flying hours
Years of production: 1971-present
Planes in operation: 336
This model is also mainly in the parks of air companies of the former Soviet Union, and performs the flights in the inner airlines mainly. Since 2002 four air crashes took place in Iran with TU 154. The latest air crash happened this year in July 15: TU 154 of Iranian Air Company Caspian Air going from Tehran to Yerevan. 168 people died.
4. Airbus A310
One crash per: 1 067 700 flying hours
Years of production: 1983-1998
Planes in operation: 191
Big air companies have already put out of operation this model of European air constructor Airbus. However, some poor countries like Pakistan International Airlines, actively keep it in operation. The latest air crash of this kind of airliner happened this year in June 30 when A310 which belonged to Yemenia Airlines and was going from Yemen to Comoro Islands fell into the open sea. 153 people died, only a 12 –year-old girl was saved.
5. McDonnell-Douglas DC-9
One crash per: 1 068 700 flying hours
Years of production: 1965-1982
Planes in operation: 315
The McDonnell-Douglas company stopped its existence after merging with Boeing in 1997, but not young already DC-9 are still in operation by the Delta Airlines company, and also by many other small air companies in the world. In April there was a crash of DC-9 of the Hewa Bora Airways2008 in the Republic of Congo, 44 people died then.
6. Tu-134
One crash per: 1 087 600 flying hours
Years of production: 1964-1986
Planes in operation: 223
The most mass plane of the soviet civil aviation is still widely used by the Russian air companies and the former Soviet republics. As soon as the level of the engine noise of the liner does not satisfy the western European standards TU 134 is mainly used in inner flights. One of the biggest crashes happened in August 2004, when the “Volga – Aviaexpress” plane crashed and all the 43 people on board died.
7. Boeing 727
One crash per: 2 306 300 flying hours
Years of production: 1963-1984
Planes in operation: 412
Most of the biggest air companies have already replaced the old Boeing 727 for more modern planes. The United Airlines air company e.g. gave one such liner to the Chicago museum of science and industry in 1993. However, this plane is still widely used out of the USA, especially by charter air companies. One of the air crashes with this plane happened in African Benin on Christmas 2003. 151 people died then.
8. McDonnell-Douglas MD-80
One crash per: 2 332 300 flying hours
Years of production: 1980-1999
Planes in operation: 923
This model, made to replace DC-9, was taken out of production recently and is still in use by the Delta American Air Company, as well as big European companies, Alitalia and SAS in particular. In August 2008 the plane of this model which belonged to the Spanish Air company Spanai crashed when going from Madrid to Canary Islands. 153 people died then.
9. McDonnell-Douglas DC-10
One crash per: 2 908 800 flying hours
Years of production: 1971-1989
Planes in operation: 153
DC 10 belongs to a rare type of planes whose security increases with its age. Fatal air crashes with this liner in 70’s brought to the significant changes and improvements in the construction of the airline. As a result the last incident with the people died happened in 1999 when the liner of the former French AOM company crashed in Guatemala. Currently the plane is mainly used by freight carrier and charter companies. The last air company which used DC 10 for regular flights was Biman Bangladesh.
10. McDonnell-Douglas MD-11
One crash per: 3 668 800 flying hours
Years of production: 1990-2001
Planes in operation: 187
MD11 turned to be not a very successful model as it had not high indexes on effectiveness of fuel using and other parameters. Anyway the Finnair and KLM air companies still use these liners, but mainly for freight carrier. The last time the plane of this model crashed in 1999. At that time the MD 11 of the China Airlines company got burned while landing in Hong Kong during the typhoon, three people died.
It is necessary to mention that the list made by BusinessWeek is somewhat different from the statistics made by the bureau on accidents by air transport JACDEC, though according to the version of this bureau the most wrecking in the history of civil aviation are the planes of Boeing Company.
You can update list: another TU-154 with half of Polish politics crashed last saturday…
Not suprising that based on your flight hours / crash statistics, a lot of the top 10 are among the most produced aircraft in service today.
Perhaps you could include the total number of aircraft that entered service as a variable in your analysis? Or maybe even factor in the causes of each accident?
The conclusions drawn from the “most unsafe airplanes in the world” title are pretty weak.
led_zepelin, the number of aircraft in service are implicitly in the statistics, because more aircraft in service make more flight hours.
Please note that the Russian planes on this list are incredibly safe. It’s always bad maintenance or a pilot error that causes the crash.
I agree with MH – russian planes are very safe. Many airplane crashes happened after the collapse of the USSR when from one huge AEROFLOT were created a lot of small independent companies. They bought cheap Chinese spares and did not fulfill the requirements of maintenance.
This analysis doesn’t consider the cause of the crash. An aircraft that is inherently hard to fly may be less safe even if the cause of any individual crash is “pilot error”, however in most cases these aircraft are not inherently hard to fly by a well trained crew. Thus you cannot necessarily say any individual aircraft is unsafe in and of itself unless you know that a majority of accidents were caused by design flaws. It is very possible that some aircraft may appear unsafe because they are operated by airlines that do either a poor job of qualifying their crew, or a poor job at maintenance. Especially with some of these older aircraft, many it is very possible that one specific airline may have a high concentration of a specific model over the total number of that model currently in operation. That being said it is true that many of these aircraft are less safe owing primarily to age. They are all aluminum monocque aircraft that are pressurized in flight, and that severely limits their useful life.
Actually, there are more than 4,000 Boeing 737’s in operation today.
Not only is the argument in this article extremely weak and vague, it is also invalid.
ratings here are bias. more crashes happen due to pilot error and other flaws than mechanical issues. In order to judge the airplanes themselves, you must ONLY include crashes due to mechanical issues with the airplane. Pilot error, controller error, FOG incidents, et-cetera MUST be left out. you will find that crashes due to mechanical failures are extremely rare, because it is REQUIRED that these planes be well maintained, including a full inspection every 100 hours, for private use, less for commercial use.
My conclusion here, i may be wrong, is that the writer was hired to publish an article against aviation. Because of the tremendous safety rating (if the airlines had a 99.9% rating, there would be a crash every 4 days, obviously there is a greater than 99.9% safety rating), it is extremely difficult, to find solid evidence to use against this industry when it comes to safety. You are many, many, times more likely to be stuck by lightning that to even witness a plane crash, let alone be in one. you are many, many times more likely to die in a car accident than to be stuck by lightning.
What IL-76 is doing hear? It is only military transport, military special and civil cargo plane. You can not fly on it unless you are for example paratrooper and involved in airborne military action. It often works in extreme circumstances, such as war or natural disasters, without technical support, in Africa, Afghanistan, Middle East, etc. So its comparison with passenger planes is not correct.
Um “JT8D” is an engine, “Pratt & Whitney JT8D”, not a Boeing model. However Boeing 737 100-200 models all use that engine. Weird to group all these together ? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737#Specifications
The statistics are all wet! The Boeing Company has been making a 737 ever since the Mid to Late 60’s
The Tail Surfaces and the Fuselage were built at Boeing Wichita, Kansas Division! I worked on some of the tools that built it there! There are more 737s in the sky than you can count! A Boeing Company Statistic
published in their own paper in the year 1990 stated that there are over 829 Boeing 737s Airborne every
second of every day! Which is a little bit more than your total figure for still in operation. The figure Boeing
gave in 1990 has only increased since then! There may be some crashes but by and large (Really Large
Quantities) their problems are minutely a scratch of the surface. There are probably more 737s hauling passengers than any other commercial jet in the skies hence you would expect more crashes. Mostly
operator error anyway! As long as there is a United States 737s wll be flying! Your words will never ground all of them! I would rather fly Boeing than anything in the skies. I would probably agree with Sam’s figure of 4000 plus 737s still in operation!
It is good to know that the above listed aeroplanes are unsafe in the world but the rest existing aeroplanes are they safe to fly.The world most powerful countries of the earth like USA and Rossia failed to construct a good flying apparatus what will happen to the rest of the world.Airbus industry had written a press report that it’s construction is unsafe for flight A330 by it investigator but the apparatus is served by several airline industries in the world.
I’d rather fly on any of these planes than I would an ATR.