Western-built commercial jets were involved in 29 accidents in 2014, down from 31 the previous year, but the number of fatalities more than quadrupled to 279, up from 62 in 2013 (Table 1 [opens table in new tab]), according to data from Boeing Commercial Airplanes.1,2
In its annual Statistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Accidents, published in August, Boeing noted three fatal accidents, two of which killed a total of 278 people — everyone in both airplanes. In the third accident, a Boeing 737 landing in Libreville, Gabon, struck and killed a person on a runway; all 137 passengers and crewmembers survived.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 that disappeared during a March 8 flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing with 239 people aboard, did not meet Boeing’s…
