MD 80 crash/fire in Madrid.2 crashed in 1997 out of 934 MD80 in service. Is this crash rate unacceptably high?

Question

Operational history

In August 2008, a total of 934 MD-80 aircraft (all variants) were in airline service, including American Airlines (304), Delta Air Lines (118), Alitalia (74), Scandinavian Airlines System (44), and Allegiant Air (35). Other operators fly fewer numbers of the type.[4]

16 August 2005; West Caribbean Airways MD82; near Machiques, Venezuela: The aircraft was on an international flight from Panama City, Panama to Martinique when the crew reported to air traffic control that the aircraft was experiencing some kind of engine problem and requested a descent from cruising altitude of 33,000 feet down to 14,000 feet. The crew later reported that both engines were experiencing problems and that the aircraft was not controllable. All eight crew members and 152 passengers were killed.

Fatal Events for Airlines from Latin America and the Caribbean

16 September 2007; One-Two-Go Airlines MD82; Phuket, Thailand: The aircraft was on a scheduled domestic flight from Bangkok (DMK) to Phuket (HKT). After landing, the aircraft skidded off the runway, impacted several trees, and caught fire. There was reportedly heavy rain and poor visibility at the time of the crash. There were at least 89 deaths, including 85 of the 123 passengers and five of the seven crew members.

Fatal Events Involving Asian Airlines

30 November 2007; Atlasjet MD83; near Keciborlu, Turkey: The plane was on a domestic flight from Istanbul to Isparta when it disappeared from radar screens. The crew had requested permission to land shortly before the aircraft crashed in mountainous terrain near the town of Keciborlu, about 12km (7.5 miles) from the Isparta airport. All seven crew members and 50 passengers were killed.

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Fatal Events Involving MD80 Series Aircraft

Fatal Events Involving Atlasjet

20 August 2008; Spanair MD82; Madrid, Spain: The aircraft crashed shortly after attempting a takeoff for a scheduled domestic flight from Madrid to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. Early reports indicate that one of the engines caught fire during the takeoff, the aircraft became airbore, and that the crew set the aircraft down in a area to the right of the departure runway. The aircraft broke up and caught fire.

Answer 1

One is too many. There is absolutely nothing that can be done about it except grounding every aircraft ever made. There has never been a perfect aircraft made and there never will be. There are also no pilots who never make mistakes.

Get a life. Questions like you pose are better left to government statisticians.

Answer 2

"west carribean airways"

"one-two-go airlines"

"atlasjet"

hardly in the same league with "American Airlines", "Delta" and "Alitalia".

You sited engine problems in two of your reports.  These aircraft are flown with a variety of engines, and those same types of engines are used on other aircraft as well.  Not an "MD80" issue.

You sited "heavy rain and poor visibility" in a third incident.  Poor judgement, also not an "MD80" issue.

No cause was sited in the fourth incident.  

Bottom line, nothing in your question supports any conclusions about the MD80 fleet.

Answer 3

How much is your life worth?

Most Major Airline Pilots are bearing the stress of 50% pay cuts, the loss of their pension, and working second jobs to make ends meet

Pilots can barely concentrate on keeping the flight safe, because Airline Management, while giving each executive millions in bonus $$ each year, are skimping on pilot salaries, fuel, maintenance, and ground safety personnel.  All to keep ticket prices and pilot salaries as they were in 1980.

Hope you liked that cheap ticket.  Stop Low Cost Airlines.

Ticket prices go down, Airplanes go down.  With a Crash.  Stop Greedy Airline Management.  Keep flying safe.  Support Your Major Air Line PIlots Association.  Vote Union.

Answer 4

You need to take into consideration how many Md80s series are flying compared to another aircraft type. For example, a 737 would naturally have a longer and more bloody accident history than the A380.

also, the age of the aircraft has a big impact. furthermore, notice the accidents did not take place in North America, where the regulations and procedures are more strict.

many old airplanes far past their service life as still in operation in Africa, where the majority of nations there have pretty much no regulations regarding air safety.

I would say the accident rate is not unacceptable. Of course, none would be preferable, but as an aircraft gets older, coupled with lax regulations, more accidents are likely to occur. It's just nature's way of saying that that type of aircraft has reached the end of its useful life as an airplane.

Answer 5

Why don't we wait and see why the thing crashed first. If a plane hits a mountain, what did the plane do wrong?

Answer 6

No. The MD-80 / DC-9 series, like the B-737 were (are) built for high frequency operation to smaller airports. Whereas the ratio of MD80/90/DC-9's vs. say, the 747, is probably 10-1, the MD-80s will make probably 20-30 take-off and landings for every takeoff and landing done by a B-747. A B-747 will almost always use a 10-12,000 foot runway whereas an MD80 will very often find itself taking off on a 6,500' runway.

So yes, more MD80's have crashed than have say, Dassault Mercures (aircraft designed for similar roles) but look at the number of aircraft built, hours flown, take-offs and landings made, etc.

And actually, many more MD80's have crashed in 2007 (and 1997 for that matter) than you point out. A crash doesn't necessarily require flaming debris and scores of dismembered bodies. More often than not, the crew and PAX walk away from these unsensational accidents but we don't read about it because it’s not very exciting news. (Senator Obama's MD80 almost fell apart in midair and lost control just last month. We only heard about that because Obama was on board)

Answer 7

He's b-AAA-aaa-ck!  (poor imitation of the girl from Poltergeist)

No Stuttgart, that is still a very low number of crashes once you consider the average MD80 series aircraft has been logging something like 3500 flight hours per year for its entire life.  We are talking about millions of flight hours logged and your managed to find 4 accidents.  You odds of winning the lottery two weeks in a row are higher than that.