The MD 82 involved was delivered in 1993 — so it’s hardly a particularly old aircraft and I think (though not sure on this) the MD 82 hasn’t been involved in more than perhaps a dozen accidents involving fatalities since the early ’80s — not a bad record considering the number of flights they’re doing.

I’d expect the cause to rest in maintenance … or lack there of… Coincidently the crash came hours after Spanair pilots threatened to strike over cost-cutting by SAS (Spanair’s parent company).

Whether it’s an old plane or a lack of maintenance, it’s tragic that we’re talking about this. And commenting on the possibility of money being the issue.

I know we always hunt for the cheapest deal, but perhaps something like this will make us think twice and accept hirer rates to avoid such things.

“Price is important to us all but I think we need to think more about the potential coincidences of flying cheap.”

Darren, I couldn’t agree more.

Yes, it’s true the MD80 series is a “derivative” of the DC9.

BUT, the reason airlines are phasing them out isn’t because they’re unsafe, but rather because they’re gas-guzzlers — some models of a Boeing 737 will use around 20% less gas to fly the same distance.

While there has been a few accidents in recent times, the 1-2-Go one in Phuket springs to mind — few have been tied back to problems with the aircraft. In fact the MD 80 series is considered to be a particularly safe aircraft to fly in. There’s a good NYT blog entry about this that quotes Boeing (admitedly not unbiased!) as saying in part:

“Measured by accident data alone, the MD-80 is considered to be one of the safest planes in the sky. According to Boeing, the plane has a fatal hull loss rate — meaning a crash involving fatalities — of 0.34 per one million departures, and an overall hull-loss, or crash, rate of 0.52 per million departures. By comparison, the average record for all commercial jets is 0.89 fatal hull losses per million departures, and an overall rate of 1.64 hull losses per million departures, Boeing said.”

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/the-long-checkered-career-of-the-md-80/

I’d say it’s way too early yet to know what caused the crash — latest reports seem to be indicating the airplane didn’t even leave the ground, rather an engine caught fire and it careened off the runway… but think prob still a lot of guesswork at this stage.

All that said, an aircraft, just like my old VW, when well maintained and loved, should remain safe for decades — as for an old design — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Spanair’s maintenance procedures, rather than the particular type of aircraft, would be my armchair guess as to the root cause…

Re the American thing, it wasn’t a withdrawal, rather maintenance that American hadn’t done (despite being told to) and so when the FAA through a fit about it, AA had to ground the aircraft to do the tasks asap.

I really feel sorry for all these people. It had to be terrible to fly somewhere and to die… I start to get nervous.. I have to fly soon from Seoul to Ukraine… Every time people fly, they risk.. though statistics says air planes crash not so often as cars..

Hi Darren, I was actually writing a summary of news coverage on the crash when your blogpost popped up on my feeder… hence my quick initial post! Agree, one shouldn’t believe everything one reads, unfortunately there’s so many sources out there it’s difficult to know what to credit - esp on a breaking story like this.