24 December, 2013

The Least Safe Aircraft......

The website AirlineRatings.com urged travellers to steer clear of four models in particular - the LET410, the Antonov AN-12, the Ilyushin Il-76, and the CASA C-212.
The LET410, for example, has been involved in at least 20 fatal crashes since 2003, according to its research, while the Ilyushin Il-76 and the Antonov AN-12 have each been involved in 17.
The LET410 – introduced in 1970 – is still used by around a dozen airlines, including four in Brazil, three in Honduras, two in the Philippines, two in Russia, and two in Hungary. Citywing, based in the Isle of Man, also uses four LET410s, leased from the Czech carrier Van Air Europe.
The Antonov AN-12 is currently used by Egyptair, Iraqi Airways, and Russia's Aeroflot, among others.


A handful of airlines count the CASA C-212 among their fleet, including Bering Air and Bighorn Airways in the US, while the Ilyushin Il-76 is now largely used for transporting cargo.
Of the 55 models analysed by AirlineRatings.com, the safest were deemed to be Boeing’s 777, 717, 787 and 767/757, the Airbus A380 and A340, the Embraer 135/145, and CRJ 700/1000 – none of which have ever been involved in a fatal accident.
“The crash records of aircraft that dominated the 1970s and 1980s but are no longer in passenger service are irrelevant today,” said Geoffrey Thomas, editor of Airline-Rating.com. “We only looked at aircraft that are carrying passengers in 2013."
He added: “We have used the Boeing database which is an industry standard and supplemented that with our own records and those ofAviation-Safety.net and Ascend. The survey also ignores piston-powered planes and those smaller aircraft used mainly for charter work.”
Last week the website ranked 425 different airlines in terms of overall safety using a star system. One-star airlines, it claimed, were the least reliable.
A total of 137 airlines have been given seven stars, the top mark, including British Airways, Flybe, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa and Aer Lingus. Ryanair, easyJet, Monarch and Jet2.com were each given five stars.
More than 40 airlines were given three stars or fewer, including Lion Air based in Indonesia, Yeti Airlines in Nepal, and Solomon Airlines.
Worst crash record
Airline Number of fatal crashes 
LET 410 20 
Ilyushin 72 17 
Antonov AN-12 17 
Twin Otter 18 
CASA 212 11 
DC-9/MD80 10 
B737-100 / 700 10 
Antonov 28 
Antonov 32 
Tupolev 154 
Best safety record
Airline Number of fatal crashes 
Boeing 777 
Boeing 717 
Airbus A380 
Airbus A340 
Boeing 787 
Boeing 767/757 
Embraer 135/145 
CRJ 700/1000 
Airbus A330 
Airbus A320 / Boeing 737NG 5

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