Boeing-737 crashes (1995-2009)

[Kshasty]

Ninety passengers and crew are feared dead after an Ethiopian Boeing-737 airliner crashed off the Mediterranean coast of Lebanon shortly after takeoff in the early hours of Monday.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100125/157675317.html here is a list of major of crashes involving Boeing-737 aircraft between 1995 and 2009.

737 seems to be the most dangerous means of air transport.

[Kolesar]

1. "General aviation" is for those who don't fear not coming home for dinner, ever

That hobby of flying Cessnas and Beechcraft is quite dangerous. They are flea weight and get pushed out of the sky by small disturbances.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. No, it's not, and no, they don't.

I'm a flight instructor, been flying small airplanes for years. They are not unsafe if you know what you're doing and don't take stupid chances.

[PacerLJ35]

16. Nope....

The reason why the mishap rate is higher among general aviation is because the certification standards to fly general aviation is generally lower (ie, private pilot certificate, versus an airline transport pilot certificate for the airlines...much different licensing requirements). The maintenance standards are also different...scheduled air carrier aircraft (Part 121 of the CFR) are required to receive regular inspections and maintenance. Part 91 aircraft (privately owned) only require an annual inspection. This does not mean that ALL private aircraft are poorly maintained, but some aren't as prudent with their maintenance as others. Finally, part 91 aircraft, particularly small airplanes like Cessnas, etc, are regularly flown by pilots that lack an instrument rating. They are essentially "day-time, fair weather" pilots only...and if the weather deteriorates quickly as it does sometimes, they are screwed.

The airplanes themselves in general aviation are perfectly fine. It's how they are taken cared of and operated that makes the difference.

[SKKY]

2. Most of these accidents are with companies whose maintenance is probably suspect.

Just sayin'.

[tomm2thumbs]

3. or least maintained and most used...

guess it would end up having to be a formula on miles-flown, divided by cause of accident being unrelated to maintenance, substracted from incidents involving the weather and multiplied by the number of birds in the air during take-off - or something like that <grin>

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

4. That is ridiculous

The 737 crashes more often because there are more of them to crash, there are also a larger number of 737's in the hands of marginal airlines (of which Ethiopian is NOT one of them) than of other similar sized aircraft.

[blondeatlast]

10. Thanks, that was precisely what I was thinking. nt

[caraher]

5. A more accurate observation would be

"737 seems to be the most common means of air transport"

What are the accident rates per passenger-mile for a particular make/model of aircraft? That starts to become a reasonable metric. Sheer accident numbers are not.

[amborin]

21. exactly! most accidents occur at home. why? b/ that's where most ppl spend most time n/t

[malaise]

6. BBC report

Looks like bad weather again
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8478060.stm

[Statistical]

7. Hardly.

The 737 has been continuously manufactured by Boeing since 1967 with over 6,000 aircraft delivered and 2,000 orders yet to be fulfilled as of May 2009.<6> The 737 series is the most-ordered and most-produced jet airliner in history as of April 2009.<1> There are on average 1,250 737s airborne at any given time, with one departing or landing somewhere every five seconds on average.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737

Far more people die in Toyota Camrys then die in Ferraris.
Is it because:
a) Toyota is most dangerous vehicle to drive?
OR
b) There is a magnitude more Toyotas than any other vehicle?

[madokie]

15. That is amazing

toyota's are a piece of excrement though :-)

[DaveinJapan]

8. A truly specious and irresponsible statement to make, to say the least!

"737 seems to be the most dangerous means of air transport."

Are you serious?

Or just trying to start an argument?

If you're serious, by all means point out the relative facts of various aircraft and their faults, and explain why the 737 in particular is so very bad.

I'm extremely sure that you are just talking out of your ass.

Unrec.

[dems_rightnow]

9. Death rates

If one uses ridiculous statistics, you might reach improper conclusions:

"Caucasians in the US 7 times more likely to die than blacks"

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. The 737 is a very safe airplane.

There are more crashes simply because there are more of them.

[marmar]

13. Might just have to do with numbers. There are by far more 737s that are flying/have flown......

than any other commercial airliner.

[madokie]

14. My flying never took me to a 737

dc 8's and 727's though. Even an old dc 3 I think it was as it was none pressurized flying from ok city to dallas tx.

some of those long 24 hour dc 8 flights seemed to last forever, especially the ones coming this way.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. Math fail.

[MissB]

20. Hilarious

I'm saving that one for my math-minded kids

[PacerLJ35]

18. Hmmm, a Russian source...perhaps a little background on the Russian's anti-737 sentiments

When a Russian airline crashed a newly acquired Boeing 737 a couple of years ago, they blamed the manufacturer and attempted to place responsibility at the feet of Boeing. What many people who read the Russian media stories were unaware of, is that taken as an accident RATE (versus pure numbers of accidents), the 737 is very safe...not to mention the accident that caused a lot of anti-737 sentiment in Russia was caused by two very drunk, very tired Russian pilots that failed to receive any adequate training in their new airplane (Russian instruments are vastly different from western instruments...and these guys basically jumped into a 737 with hardly any training at all, drunk and tired, and flew it into the ground in poor visibility).

Anyways, just throwing that out there...

[closeupready]

19. As others have posted, the 737 is one of the safest planes in existence.

Check out the stats on airsafe.com