Many argue that the most reliable aircraft is the Boeing 777. It still does not have a single accident in the air due to a technical malfunction. The same opinion was reached by BusinessWeek, which compiled a conditional rating of the most reliable aircraft based on data from the insurance consultant Ascend.
The plane as a means of transportation is the most reliable form of passenger transport. The safety margin of any aircraft is more than tenfold. That is, the maximum allowable safety margin is ten times greater than the aircraft's required technical conditions.
BusinessWeek's five safest planes
Boeing 777 tops the top 5 safest aircraft. The start of operation of this model falls on 1995, the number of hours spent in the air is more than nineteen million, and during the entire operation there has not been a single fatal tragedy. Back in 2007, the Boeing 777 set its personal record of one million non-stop flights. For almost two decades of successful operation of the airliner, there were only seven precedents, of which two hostage-taking attempts and one accident. The most unpleasant incident is considered to be the Beijing-London flight in 2008, in which icing began in the heat exchanger of the fuel equipment at a height. Thirteen people were injured as a result of the emergency landing at Heathrow.
The second place in the safety rating is occupied by the Airbus A340, which has been in operation since 1993. The number of hours spent in the air is more than thirteen million. This liner also does not have a single fatal accident. The most dangerous landing was during a thunderstorm in Toronto in 2005. During the emergency landing, 43 people were injured.
The third place belongs to the Airbus A330, which had no fatal accidents until 2009. The only accident that led to the death of all people in the airliner occurred in 2009 on June 1, but, as the decoding of the black boxes showed, the tragedy was the fault of the pilots.
In fourth place is the Boeing 747, which has seventeen and a half million flying time and one disaster. It began to operate in 1970, during this time there were fifty disasters, eighteen of them with human casualties. The most tragic accident happened in the 2002 Boeing crash over the Pacific Ocean, which killed 225 people.
The fifth place was taken by the Boeing 737 NG, which has three accidents on its account, but the fifth place is based on the average. This Boeing model has been in operation relatively recently, since 1982. Meanwhile, the plane is considered the most reliable among travelers, since all three accidents were caused by people. The worst happened in India in 2010, when the pilot lost control and the plane exploded in a ravine.
Another version of aircraft reliability
Supporters of another version of the calculation of the most reliable aircraft believe that this figure does not depend on the aircraft model. It depends only on the reliability of the airline to which this aircraft belongs, since the technical condition of the aircraft depends on the human factor and is directly related to both the hiring of professional maintenance personnel and the selection of high-quality pilots.
Any aircraft has its own lifespan, the end of which is ignored by some airlines. Sometimes there are reports in the media about drunk pilots, and no one knows how matters stand with the technical inspection of aircraft before departure and periodic inspection in hangars. That is why, the sooner private air carrier companies realize how important it is to take flight preparation seriously, the better and more reliable their aircraft will be. The cost of a mistake is human life.
