Boeing · Single-aisle jet
Boeing 717
Is the Boeing 717 safe? It ranks #11 of 53 airliner families we rate, with no fatal accidents counted in about 5 million passenger flights.
How the score is built
- Fatal passenger accidents
- 0 in 5 million flights
No fatal accident on a passenger flight in the data (ASN database to 7 October 2026).
- Full-loss equivalents
- 0
Each counted accident adds the share of people on board who died (1 = no survivors). This is what the score is based on.
- Flights flown
- 5 million
Estimated passenger departures. Passenger departures 1999 to 7 October 2026. 2019-2022: OpenSky flights by passenger airlines, re-weighted to World Bank departures country by country. Other years: fleet model (deliveries with a median passenger service life of about 17 years, about 1,827 departures per aircraft per year, calibrated on OpenSky 2019). Uncertainty roughly ±25%.
- Technology generation
- Gen 3 jet (glass cockpit and flight management system)
Small fleets are pulled toward the record of their generation: 0.17 full-loss equivalents per million flights over 419 million flights. Weight of this family's own record: 62%.
- Last fatal passenger accident
- None
No counted fatal accident.
- Hull losses
- 0
Civil aircraft destroyed or written off from all causes, including non-fatal accidents, cargo flights and attacks; airframes flown by air forces on military operations are left out (context only, not in the score).
Compared with everyday risks
One flight on the Boeing 717 carries about the same risk of death as the activities near it below.
- One flight on the Boeing 717This aircraft1 in 16 million
- An hour's walk1 in 14 million
- Driving 100 miles (160 km)1 in 5.9 million
- A day of skiing1 in 1.3 million
- An ordinary day: accidents and violence1 in 1 million
- A scuba dive1 in 500,000
- Cycling 100 miles (160 km)1 in 430,000
- Running a marathon1 in 290,000
- A skydive1 in 250,000
- A general anaesthetic1 in 100,000
- Riding a motorbike 100 miles (160 km)1 in 83,000
Accident history
No fatal accident on a passenger flight counts toward this score.
The Boeing 717 is one of the few airliner types with a spotless fatal record. Up to 7 October 2026, in about 5 million passenger flights since 1999, no one has died in a 717 accident and none of the 156 aircraft has been Hull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary. It is an older design, and the fleet is shrinking, but the record gives no reason to avoid it.
What the 717 is
The 717 is the last of the DC-9 line. McDonnell Douglas launched it as the MD-95, a 100 to 120 seat jet for short, busy routes. Boeing inherited it in the 1997 merger, renamed it and delivered the first one to AirTran in 1999. Production ended in 2006 after only 156 aircraft, all of the 717-200 version, because airlines bought regional jets and the A320 family instead.
Compared with its ancestors, the DC-9 and the MD-80, the 717 kept the slim fuselage, the five-abreast cabin and the T-tail with two engines at the rear. It got modern Rolls-Royce BR715 engines and a two-pilot glass cockpit. It has conventional cable-and-hydraulic flight controls, not Fly-by-wireA flight control system in which the pilot's inputs go to computers, which then move the control surfaces. Many such systems also stop unsafe manoeuvres.More in the glossary.
Where you fly on one
The 717 was built for short sectors with many take-offs a day, and that is still how it is used. Delta Air Lines has flown the biggest fleet, mostly on routes out of Atlanta and other hubs in the US east. Hawaiian Airlines uses it on the short hops between the islands. QantasLink, the regional arm of Qantas, has flown it on domestic routes in Australia. About 100 remain in service. QantasLink is replacing its fleet with the A220, and the type will grow rarer as the others follow.
What the record contains
The Aviation Safety Network lists about twenty 717 occurrences, none fatal. Most are ground collisions with trucks, conveyors or other aircraft, and flight attendants hurt in turbulence. Three stand out because they touch the airframe itself:
- 9 August 2001, TWA: the nose gear would not extend on approach to St Louis, and the crew landed at Scott Air Force Base. US investigators traced it to earlier damage from a wheel chock. All 76 people were unhurt.
- 7 February 2008, QantasLink: a hard landing at Darwin at night in rain, after an unstable approach. Australian investigators pointed to the approach, the operator's procedures and training, not to a fault in the aircraft.
- 28 June 2023, Delta 1092: the nose gear stayed up at Charlotte. The crew landed on the main gear and lowered the nose onto the runway; all 104 people evacuated without injury. The cause was a fatigue crack in a gear link, and an overhaul shop had not complied with a Boeing service bulletin on that part.
The pattern is a maintenance message rather than a design one: an old fleet stays safe as long as the inspections and bulletins are done.
How a type with no deaths is scored
A clean record over 5 million flights is good evidence, but not proof that the risk is zero. Our methodology starts each type from the average record of its design generation and moves it towards its own history as flights add up. The 717 therefore scores well, but it is not treated as perfect. Compare it with the Airbus A220, which is replacing it at QantasLink.
How to tell if you are on one
Flight trackers show the ICAO code B712. On board, look for the two engines mounted at the back beside the T-tail, and a cabin with two seats on one side of the aisle and three on the other. The rear seats are noisier because they sit next to the engines, so ask for a seat towards the front if that bothers you.
Questions people ask
Has a Boeing 717 ever crashed?
No. Up to 7 October 2026 no Boeing 717 has had a fatal accident, and none has been Hull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary. The worst events in the record are landings with a nose gear that would not come down, and in each one everyone on board got off safely.
Is the Boeing 717 the same as the MD-95?
Yes. McDonnell Douglas launched it as the MD-95, the last member of the DC-9 family. Boeing took over the programme when the two companies merged in 1997 and renamed it the 717 before it entered service in 1999.
Is the 717 too old to be safe?
The newest 717s were delivered in 2006, so the fleet is about 20 to 27 years old. Age alone does not make an airliner unsafe if the maintenance programme is followed. The 2023 Delta nose gear failure is a reminder that it has to be: investigators found that an overhaul shop had not complied with a Boeing service bulletin.
Which airlines fly the Boeing 717?
Delta Air Lines has flown the largest fleet, much of it taken over from AirTran through Southwest. Hawaiian Airlines uses it on short hops between the islands, and QantasLink has flown it on Australian domestic routes. QantasLink is replacing it with the Airbus A220.
Sources
- 1.ASN record: Delta Air Lines flight 1092, nose gear failure, Charlotte, 28 June 2023 (opens in a new tab) · Aviation Safety Network
- 2.ASN record: TWA Boeing 717 nose gear landing, Scott Air Force Base, 9 August 2001 (opens in a new tab) · Aviation Safety Network
- 3.ASN record: QantasLink Boeing 717 hard landing, Darwin, 7 February 2008 (opens in a new tab) · Aviation Safety Network
- 4.Crowdsourced air traffic data from the OpenSky Network 2019-2022 (opens in a new tab) · OpenSky Network (Zenodo)
- 5.SafetyScorer exposure model: OpenSky Network flights 2019-2022, World Bank departures, fleet model (opens in a new tab)Passenger departures 1999 to 7 October 2026. 2019-2022: OpenSky flights by passenger airlines, re-weighted to World Bank departures country by country. Other years: fleet model (deliveries with a median passenger service life of about 17 years, about 1,827 departures per aircraft per year, calibrated on OpenSky 2019). Uncertainty roughly ±25%.