Diamond DA40

On the numbers, the DA40 has the best record per flight of the modern composite singles we rate, close to the Cessna 172 and just behind it. The catch is size. Only eight fatal accidents in the United States since 2008 count toward its score, and the fleet is small, so one or two more would move it a lot.

What is the DA40?

Diamond Aircraft of Austria first flew the DA40 in 1997, and deliveries began in 2002. It is a four-seat, low-wing composite plane with fixed landing gear, a T-tail and long, slender wings. Most US aircraft have a 180 hp Lycoming engine that runs on avgas; the DA40 NG uses an Austro diesel that burns jet fuel. It has no airframe parachute. The FAA register grew from 582 DA40s in 2008 to 959 in 2026. Many go to flight schools and university programs; owners fly the rest.

How do we count the DA40's flights?

For small planes we use only US fatal accidents since 2008, taken from the NTSB database, and divide them by US flights built from the FAA register and the FAA General Aviation survey. That survey gives flying hours for all single-engine pistons together. Airframe hours in NTSB accident records and, to a lesser degree, ADS-B tracks from 2019 to 2022 show how often each type flies: a DA40 makes far more flights than the average single, about as many as a Cessna 172, which puts it at about 2.5 million estimated flights. A flight runs from take-off to the final landing, so touch-and-goes in the circuit do not add flights. ADS-B receivers miss some aircraft and some low flying, so the estimate is still uncertain. A flight in any small plane carries far more risk than an airline flight. See our method and the small planes ranking.

What happened in the eight accidents?

Up to 28 October 2026, 8 fatal accidents count, with 15 deaths. Seven were private or other flights and one was a training flight, a lower training share than school use would suggest. Five were loss of control in flight and three flight into terrain. None was an engine failure or a fuel problem.

Darkness links five of the eight. On a rainy night on 1 March 2009, a tired pilot let the DA40 sink below the glidepath of a GPS approach over the sea to Arcata, California; both on board died. The latest, near Eldorado Springs, Colorado, on 4 October 2026, hit rising ground below a ridgeline after nearly three hours of night flying around Boulder; no cause is published yet.

The single training accident came on 6 June 2021, when a LIFT Academy instructor and student practised a power-off stall at about 4,000 feet near Darlington, Indiana. A wing dropped, the DA40 spun into the ground, and both died. Another shows the limits of a light four-seater. Near Cedar City, Utah, on 23 April 2022, a DA40 loaded above its maximum weight flew low over high ground and hit terrain in a steep turn, killing all four. On 7 March 2011, a Canadian DA40 whose pilot had declined a weather briefing picked up ice in cloud over Maine and stalled; it does not count, because only US-registered aircraft do.

Practical advice for students, renters and passengers

• Treat night over dark land, water or mountains as instrument flying, and be current on instruments before you go.
• Do the weight and balance with real passenger and bag weights, not estimates.
• Ask a school how it teaches stalls and spin recovery, and at what height, and what your instructor's time in the type is.
• Stay seated until the propeller stops. In 2022 at Bardstown, Kentucky, a passenger who stepped off the wing with the engine running was killed by the propeller; that ground death is not counted.
• Look up the aircraft's N-number in the FAA registry and the NTSB accident database before you rent.

How to tell if you are on one

Flight trackers show DA40. For the twin-engine Diamond, see the DA42 and DA62.