In just a matter of weeks, two Airbus jets have crashed into the ocean taking hundreds of passengers with them to the bottom. This news is probably enough to make you think twice before you step on your next flight on an Airbus. But, the entire Airbus fleet — more than 5400 planes in service globally — is much safer than you think.
Former CNN anchor Miles O’Brien:
In July 2008, Airbus’ bitter rival Boeing released a “Statistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Accidents†from the dawn of the jet age in 1959 through 2007.
At the time of the study, the A330 still had a flawless record: no fatal accidents in the course of a million departures. A month ago, Air France 447 changed that record – but the airliner remains very safe statistically.
Over the years Airbus A300’s have had three crashes that caused deaths. That equates to a rate of .47 airplanes lost per million departures. The A320 series has had eight fatal crashes – or .23 hulls per million departures. And the A340 has never had a fatal crash.
The record is not as good for the A310 – the model of airplane that plunged into the sea trying to land at the capital of the Comoros Islands – Moroni. It has crashed and killed people eight times now (six times on the event horizon of the Boeing study). That equates to a fatal accident rate of 1.42 airplanes for every million departures.
The infamous – and much maligned – DC-10 crashed with fatalities a dozen times for a rate of 1.36 fatal crashes per million departures.
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