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by burnte 823 days ago
Yes. A place design that's 70 years old has had THOUSANDS of bugs fixed. I'd rather fly on a new 737 than an "all new 797 or A390".

Side note: I know there isn't a 797 or A390 yet, that was the intent of the statement, a future unknown plane.

2 comments

All-new aircraft designs are only certified to fly after many years of rigorous analysis and testing. It was Boeing's desire to avoid the full expensive certification process, by claiming that the MAX was just a minor update to an existing design, which led to two catastrophic crashes in the space of a few months.

On the other hand, no 787 or A380 has ever had a crash or incident that resulted in a passenger fatality or hull loss. This LATAM flight is probably the most serious incident that has ever happened on a 787 in almost 10 years of service, with over 1100 aircraft active.

> On the other hand, no 787 or A380 has ever had a crash or incident that resulted in a passenger fatality or hull loss.

There have been nearly 10x as many 737s built as 787s and A380s combined. Given the date of first flight (1967 vs. 2009 and 2203, respectively) it is safe to say they have been flown for significantly more than 10x the total flight hours. Probably at least 20x but I’m pulling that number out of thin air.

The data is certainly promising but it’s probably a little too soon to be too confident in relative safety comparisons. For one, we don’t have nearly as much data on those newer airframes as they age.

There are two recent accidents that show how much new airplane designs (and better safety measures) have improved survivability of accidents: Emirates Flight 521 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirates_Flight_521), a Boeing 777 that crashed in Dubai in 2016, where all 300 people on board survived (although un unfortunate firefighter lost his life); and the A350 that collided with another airplane while landing at Tokio Haneda airport in January this year - if you look at the burnt out airplane (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Haneda_Airport_runway_col...), it's hard to believe that all 379 people on board made it out alive...
The problem is quality control of production and new features. It doesn't matter how old most of the design is, if someone messes up in the production line, or if new features are not adequately tested like in case of MCAS.

Lack of QC is why I'll gladly choose any Airbus over any new Boeing.