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I have booked flights for our family to travel Australia - Europe return with EK. My nine year old son is an aviation geek and since learning some details of the EK B777 crash in DXB (and also the OZ 214 crash) he has become very concerned about flying B777. I took that into account when booking flights and booked A380s all the way through (booked with QF due to airpoints but EK flights) but since booking the DXB - PER flight is now showing as a B777-300ER. He is in tears and refusing to fly on it. He is prone to some anxiety and is adamant that he won't be getting on the B777.

Is there anyone that can alleviate his fears? I have read and read articles out to him (which is how I ended up here) but he won't hear any of it.

My only hope is if someone with actual knowledge can provide some safety information that will convince him that it the B777 is a safe aircraft.

Many thanks in advance.

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    $\begingroup$ The biggest factor in safety are the humans maintaining and operating the aircraft. Maybe you focus on the accident record of a particular airline and not on that of a particular type. However, since the fear of your son is based on emotions, I wonder how this very rational site can help. I guess you already read this to him, and it seems it did not help. $\endgroup$
    – Peter Kämpf
    Jan 6, 2017 at 8:50
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    $\begingroup$ Also, per Wikipedia: "The 777 has been involved in six hull losses as of October 2016; the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 accident in July 2013 was its first fatal crash in 18 years of service." It has now been in service for 21 years. It is far and away statistically one of the safest types to fly on. Nearly all of the fatalities were from MH370 (probably hijack) and MH17 (missile); the Dubai crash had none. That should speak volumes. $\endgroup$
    – egid
    Jan 6, 2017 at 8:58
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    $\begingroup$ There has been 100,000 flights yesterday, the same the day before... no B777 crashed as far as I know. If you do the same for your car model, you'll be frightened. Safety if by far a bigger concern for aviation manufacturers and authorities than for other transportation means. $\endgroup$
    – mins
    Jan 6, 2017 at 8:58
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    $\begingroup$ This might be better handled by parenting.stackexchange.com to be honest! No amount of aviation geekery is going to alieve your sons anxiety. $\endgroup$
    – Jamiec ♦
    Jan 6, 2017 at 9:05
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    $\begingroup$ It is an incontrovertible, logically and statistically proven fact that the safest part of your journey, by orders of magnitude, begins when you board the aircraft and ends when you disembark. A rational approach might be to ask the same questions of the taxi/bus/train you will use to get to the airport since that is the highest risk portion of the journey. All modern aircraft operated by major airlines are safe as long as you understand that nothing in life has zero risk. $\endgroup$
    – Simon
    Jan 6, 2017 at 13:05

3 Answers 3

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The Boeing 777 has an excellent reputation when it comes to safety.

Just under 1500 have been built which have accumulated more than five million flights and 20 million flight hours. Only 6 aircraft have been lost in a accident, which is a really low number considering the number of aircraft and flights.

Moreover, of those hull losses, at least one (MH17) was due to a criminal act which cannot be attributed to the safety of this specific aircraft type.

Of the other 5 hull losses:

  • One cause is unknown (MH370).
  • One (MS667) was caused by fire while the aircraft was at the gate. No fatalities.
  • Three crashes were during landing.

Of the three crashes during landing:

  • One (BA038) is caused by ice in the fuel system which clogged a filter. The filter has been redesigned and can no longer cause a problem. The accident did injure 47 people, there were no fatalities.

  • One (OZ214) was caused by the pilots committing a number of minor and major errors during the approach to the airport. It can hardly be attributed to the aircraft type. The crash resulted in only 3 fatalities, which is remarkable considering the violence of the crash and amount of damage to the aircraft.

  • The last accident (EK521) caused no fatalities among the passengers but the cause of the accident is still under investigation. So far, the Investigation is working to determine and analyze the human performance factors that influenced flight crew actions during the landing and attempted go-around. The investigation has revealed no Aircraft systems or engine abnormalities up to the time of the Accident.

Combined you can see that the aircraft has performed an enormous number of flights with very few severe accidents and very few fatalities.

It is considered as one of the safest aircraft around.

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    $\begingroup$ @DeltaLima Where did you find these stats (e.g. "1500 have been built which have accumulated more than five million flights and 20 million flight hours. Only 6 aircraft have been lost in a accident")? Thanks. $\endgroup$
    – Ryan
    Jan 7, 2017 at 0:13
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    $\begingroup$ @Ryan Here's the source for deliveries. These are also listed on the wiki for the 777. $\endgroup$
    – reirab
    Jan 7, 2017 at 16:54
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    $\begingroup$ @reirab, Corner concluded not dead prior to being run over by rescue vehicle, but the attorney's office concluded she was already dead. Without more info, no way for us to know if possible for her to have survived if not run over, which arguably should be the standard. Frankly, IMO arguing that her death should not be attributed to the accident to be biased. Which does not matter for this discussion. She was a passenger. She died as a direct result of the accident at the scene. If she died in an auto crash in an ambulance once left the scene, that might be arguable, but IMO, this is not. $\endgroup$
    – Makyen
    Jan 7, 2017 at 17:10
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    $\begingroup$ @reirab, The official NTSB report concludes "Three of the 291 passengers were fatally injured". To me that is conclusive. $\endgroup$
    – Makyen
    Jan 7, 2017 at 17:11
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    $\begingroup$ @Makyen: this question is about the safety of the aircraft. If a passenger died after the accident and not due to injuries sustained in the accident, such death should not count against the aircraft safety record. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Argerami
    Jan 8, 2017 at 8:05
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This is not a direct answer to your request, but it might help in your child's plight.

  • Go to Flight Radar 24.

  • To the right of the page, click on the funnel that opens the "Filters" dialog.

  • Below "add new filter", select "aircraft", and write "B77" in the box beside

  • Click the "+" icon.

After the above steps and zooming in and out, you'll be watching in real time all the hundreds of B777 that are on the air at any moment (at the precise moment I'm writing this, there are 624 in the air). This happens every day, every hour, no exceptions. Maybe that way you can convey to him how safe it is to fly these days.

The other suggestion might not work well because fear is fairly irrational, but here it is: just compare (for any country) the number of fatalities in air crashes with, say, the number of fatalities in car crashes. The way I see it, that should convince anybody that it is probably safer to be inside a commercial plane than anywhere else on earth.

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In the document Statistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Accidents Worldwide Operations | 1959–2015 summary, here, the page 19 has the table Accident Rates by Airplane Type that includes 777 among many other types. It looks pretty good there.

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    $\begingroup$ It would be best to include at least enough information in your answer to show that it looks good. If the link dies your answer has nothing to support it. $\endgroup$
    – fooot
    Jan 10, 2017 at 16:47
  • $\begingroup$ The question is where to find, not if it is good. $\endgroup$
    – h22
    Jan 10, 2017 at 17:14
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    $\begingroup$ All of the other answers have provided the actual information, not just a link. $\endgroup$
    – fooot
    Jan 10, 2017 at 17:51

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