Hull Losses
The number of accidents today is significantly lower than a comparable year in the previous decade.
Hull loss is an event in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. Most fatal accidents also result in a hull loss. However, in the majority of hull losses, there are no fatalities.
The number of flights on commercial jet aircraft was continuously growing prior to the effects of the pandemic. In spite of this growth, the number of accidents was decreasing each decade. There were no hull loss accidents recorded in 2023.
As the number of accidents and flights will vary each year, accident rates are more relevant than reviewing the number of accidents per year when analyzing trends.
The rate of hull losses is steadily decreasing over time
There were far fewer flights in the 1960s, but a peak in the accident rates is shown due to the lower number of flights and the higher number of accidents recorded during this period. However, the volume of flights over recent decades is sufficient to show that the hull loss accident rate is continually decreasing.
Generation 4 aircraft have the lowest hull loss rate
The continual reduction in accident rates has been achieved by an ongoing commitment of the commercial aviation industry to enable a safe aircraft to be safely operated in a safe air transport system.
A notable part of this success is due to effective regulation, a strong safety culture, and improvements in training. Technological advances are also a crucial enabler for enhancing the level of safety. In particular, technologies introduced in aircraft systems intentionally evolved with improving safety as their aim.
A comparison of hull loss accident rates by generation of aircraft provides a clear illustration of the value of commercial aviation industry investments in technology to improve safety. generation 4 aircraft have the lowest hull loss rate of all. In 2023, generation 4 aircraft had a rate of 0.14 hull losses per million flight cycles. This rate is more than 3 times lower than the previous generation 3 jets.
10 year moving average hull loss rate (per million flights) per aircraft generation
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