Avro RJ

The Avro RJ is a sound aircraft with a short, clear fatal record. Up to 7 October 2026 it has had 3 fatal accidents in about 2.3 million passenger flights, and all three count. None was caused by the aircraft: two crews descended below the minimum altitude in bad weather, and a third flight ran out of fuel. Today only a few still carry passengers.

What the Avro RJ is

The RJ (for "regional jet") is British Aerospace's 1990s update of the BAe 146, built under the Avro name. It first flew in 1992 and entered service in 1993, and 170 were built in three lengths: the RJ70, RJ85 and RJ100, with about 70 to 112 seats. Like the 146, it has a high wing, a T-tail and four small turbofans, with no thrust reversers; a large airbrake in the tail cone and lift spoilers slow it down instead. The RJ added LF507 engines with digital engine control and a glass cockpit.

The design was made for short runways and steep approaches, which is why it was a fixture at London City Airport and on Swiss, Belgian and German regional routes.

Where it still flies

About 30 remain in service. Swiss, Lufthansa CityLine, Brussels Airlines and CityJet flew the largest fleets and have retired them. Mahan Air in Iran has kept RJs in passenger service under sanctions. Many of the rest have become freighters or firefighting air tankers in North America and Australia. If you board one today, it is most likely on a charter or with a small operator, so look at the airline first.

The three fatal accidents

• 24 November 2001, Crossair 3597, Zürich: at night, on a non-precision approach to runway 28, the crew continued below the minimum descent altitude without seeing the runway and hit a wooded hill. 24 of 33 died. Swiss investigators found that the descent below minimums was deliberate.
• 8 January 2003, Turkish Airlines 634, Diyarbakır: in fog, on a VOR approach without ILS, the crew kept descending after reaching the minimum altitude with no runway in sight. The RJ100 struck the ground about 900 m short. 75 of 80 died.
• 28 November 2016, LaMia 2933, near Medellín: the small Bolivian charter airline was flying the Chapecoense football team. The RJ85 left Santa Cruz with fuel for the planned flight time and no reserve, all four engines stopped in a holding pattern, and it hit a hill. 71 of 77 died.

Crossair and Diyarbakır are classic controlled flight into terrain, which modern terrain warning systems and stabilised approach rules have made much rarer. LaMia was a failure of a company that should never have been flying that route on that fuel.

Non-fatal write-offs

The Aviation Safety Network lists several RJ hull lossesHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary without deaths, mostly landing accidents. Two Turkish Airlines RJs were written off after landing excursions in 1998 and 2000, and a BA CityFlyer RJ100's nose gear collapsed on landing at London City in 2009; everyone on board got out. None pointed to a lasting design problem.

How it compares

Three fatal accidents in 2.3 million flights is a weaker figure than modern twin-engine regional jets such as the Embraer E-Jet, but the numbers are small and all three crashes came down to crew and company decisions. Our methodology explains how few events in a small fleet are weighed.

How to tell if you are on one

Flight trackers show RJ70, RJ85 or RJ1H (the RJ100). You will see four engines hanging under a high wing, a T-tail, and a cabin five or six seats across. The BAe 146 looks almost identical; its codes start with B46.