Which aircraft are the safest?

I think as a general rule of thumb people tend to consider new aircraft as the safest and you often hear people making comments about the age of airliners with quotes like "that rusty bucket" and "that old tin can" being commonly heard around airport departure lounges.

A number of UK and US airlines are renowned for hanging on to their "old birds" but are they really any less safe than new aircraft. Clearly there isn't any specific air worthiness doubt here as we know aircraft are meticulously scrutinised throughout the year and at various stages during their flying life.

What "aircraft type" do you consider to be the safest and why??

 

I know the what the stats say but it would be interesting to know the safety ranking for each aircraft type, or deaths per million flights etc. I'm guessing the ATR isn't performing as well as say the older variants of the 737. On the otherhand until more 737-Maxs are flying I expect they will be quite high on the leaderboard for the time being at least.

As I mentioned before, the size of the aircraft is important- the smaller the higher the risk. Personally my only concerns have been when taking off/landing in bad weather (tropical storms inparticular) I'm sure weather is the biggest factor.

 

Weather is a big factor as is pilot error, which is often a result of poor communication between the captain and first officer. On many occasions the aircraft systems can be advising the correct course of action but the pilots ignore or overule it. Still when asked about flying on an aircraft which is autonomous I would still prefer to be on a crewed flight.

 

Weather is a big factor as is pilot error, which is often a result of poor communication between the captain and first officer.

One of the worst examples of poor communication between crew that I can remember, was the crash of the Korean Airlines Cargo B747, departing STN. From a documentary that I watched, it appears that the Captain's Attitude Indicator (Artificial Horizon), was not working and showed the aircraft to be in level flight. In reality, it was in a steep bank (the flight was at night). The First Officers Attitude Indicator was working, but because of the extreme hierarchical nature of Korean culture (the crew all bowed to the Captain as he entered), nothing was said by the First Officer regarding the situation (e.g. 'my Attitude Indicator is working, let's fly by that'), even though he must have known he was going to die. Since then, Korean pilot training has changed, so that the Captain is not 'God'. The fight crew, along with the cabin crew, are a team and although the Captain retains ultimate responsibility for the flight, other crew members are encouraged to give input.

Still when asked about flying on an aircraft which is autonomous I would still prefer to be on a crewed flight.

There is absolutely no way you would get me onboard an autonomous aircraft! Computers are only as good as they are programmed. When there is a problem, a highly trained flight crew are able to think 'out of the box' (example, the Sioux City accident, where the crew controlled the crippled DC-10 by varying power in the two remaining wing engines. Yes, live were lost, but it would have been much worse without the intervention of the crew), computers can't 'think' like that.

 

One of the worst examples of poor communication between crew that I can remember, was the crash of the Korean Airlines Cargo B747, departing STN. From a documentary that I watched, it appears that the Captain's Attitude Indicator (Artificial Horizon), was not working and showed the aircraft to be in level flight. In reality, it was in a steep bank (the flight was at night). The First Officers Attitude Indicator was working, but because of the extreme hierarchical nature of Korean culture (the crew all bowed to the Captain as he entered), nothing was said by the First Officer regarding the situation (e.g. 'my Attitude Indicator is working, let's fly by that'), even though he must have known he was going to die. Since then, Korean pilot training has changed, so that the Captain is not 'God'. The fight crew, along with the cabin crew, are a team and although the Captain retains ultimate responsibility for the flight, other crew members are encouraged to give input.


There is absolutely no way you would get me onboard an autonomous aircraft! Computers are only as good as they are programmed. When there is a problem, a highly trained flight crew are able to think 'out of the box' (example, the Sioux City accident, where the crew controlled the crippled DC-10 by varying power in the two remaining wing engines. Yes, live were lost, but it would have been much worse without the intervention of the crew), computers can't 'think' like that.

I suppose you really would need 3 attitude indications to work out if one was malfunctioning.

 

Fire on board. Laptop on fire in aircraft. United…:

 

Fire onboard an aircraft would be one of my worst nightmares!