Lockheed · Wide-body jet
Lockheed L-1011 TriStar
Is the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar safe? It ranks #0 of 53 airliner families we rate, with 4 fatal accidents counted in about 5.4 million passenger flights.
How the score is built
- Fatal passenger accidents
- 4 in 5.4 million flights
0.75 fatal passenger accidents per million flights. Counted: passenger flights, accidents and unexplained losses; not counted: sabotage, hijackings, shoot-downs and deliberate crew acts.
- Full-loss equivalents
- 2.4
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
- 5.4 million
Estimated passenger departures. Passenger departures 1972 to 7 October 2026 from a fleet model: deliveries with a median passenger service life of about 23 years and about 975 departures per aircraft per year (average of similar types in OpenSky). OpenSky sees too few of these aircraft because they were retired before 2019. Uncertainty roughly ±50%.
- Technology generation
- Gen 2 jet (integrated autoflight, analogue cockpit)
Small fleets are pulled toward the record of their generation: 0.88 full-loss equivalents per million flights over 236 million flights. Weight of this family's own record: 64%.
- Last fatal passenger accident
- 2 August 1985
Delta Air Lines flight DL191, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, TX (DFW), United States of America: 134 of 163 people on board died.
- Hull losses
- 10
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 Lockheed L-1011 TriStar carries about the same risk of death as the activities near it below.
- An hour's walk1 in 14 million
- Driving 100 miles (160 km)1 in 5.9 million
- One flight on the Lockheed L-1011 TriStarThis aircraft1 in 1.7 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
4 fatal accidents count toward the score, with 538 people on board killed.
| Date | Flight | Killed | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines DL191L-1011 TriStar 1 · Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, TX (DFW), United States of America | 134 / 163 on board | The crew flew the approach into a thunderstorm cell with visible lightning and met a microburst at low height. The TriStar touched down short, struck a car on a highway and broke up against water tanks. One driver on the ground also died.Type: Windshear or stormASN record | |
| Saudi Arabian Airlines SV162L-1011 TriStar 200 · over Qatar, Qatar | 2 / 291 on board | Climbing through 29,000 ft, a main-wheel flange failed from fatigue and burst through the pressure hull. Two passengers were sucked out through a hole in the floor; the crew landed safely at Doha.Type: System failureASN record | |
| Saudi Arabian Airlines SV163L-1011 TriStar 200 · Riyadh International Airport (RUH), Saudi Arabia | 301 / 301 on board | A fire broke out in the rear cargo hold after take-off. The crew landed back at Riyadh but did not stop on the runway or order an evacuation; by the time rescuers opened a door, fire had swept the cabin. No one survived.Type: FireASN record | |
| Eastern Air Lines EA401L-1011-385-1 TriStar 1 · Everglades, FL, United States of America | 101 / 176 on board | While the crew dealt with a nose-gear indicator light that would not come on, the TriStar slowly lost height from its holding altitude at night and struck the Everglades marsh. Investigators found nobody was watching the instruments.Type: Flight into terrainASN record |
Listed but not counted
These events did not happen on regular passenger flights or were caused by a crime or a deliberate act, which says little about the aircraft design.
| Date | Flight | Killed | Why not counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air LankaL-1011 TriStar 100 · Colombo-Katunayake International Airport (CMB/VCBI), Sri Lanka | 14 / 128 on board | Unlawful interference (sabotage, hijacking or shoot-down). As passengers boarded the TriStar at Colombo, already delayed by damage during loading, a bomb hidden in its spares kit went off. The government blamed Tamil Tiger rebels seeking to wreck peace talks.Type: SecurityASN record |
The Lockheed TriStar retired from passenger service with one of the better records of its generation. Up to 7 October 2026 it has five fatal events in our data, and four count, in about 5.4 million passenger flights. The last was in 1985. Only one of the four involved a failure of the airframe itself; the others came from a distracted crew, a cargo hold fire that was badly handled, and a thunderstorm.
What the TriStar is
The L-1011 was Lockheed's three-engine widebody, launched against the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 for the same airlines and routes. It first flew in 1970 and entered service in 1972. All TriStars have Rolls-Royce RB211 engines, two under the wings and one in the tail, fed through an S-shaped duct. The -1, -100 and -200 share the same body; the -500 is shorter and has a longer range.
The TriStar was known for its advanced autopilot and automatic landing system. It sold poorly all the same: only 250 were built before production ended in 1984. Eastern, TWA, Delta, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Saudia and Air Lanka flew it, and later charter airlines such as Air Transat. The one still flying launches rockets, not passengers.
The four counted accidents
- 29 December 1972, Eastern 401: the crew was busy with a nose gear light that would not come on, and nobody noticed the jet slowly losing height from its holding altitude. It hit the Everglades at night; 101 of 176 died.
- 19 August 1980, Saudia 163: smoke warnings for the rear cargo hold came on during the climb out of Riyadh. The crew turned back and landed, but did not stop on the runway or order an evacuation. By the time rescuers opened a door, fire had swept the cabin. All 301 people died. Investigators could not find what lit the fire, but blamed the captain's handling for the death toll.
- 23 December 1980, Saudia 162: climbing through 29,000 ft over Qatar, a main wheel flange failed from fatigue and burst through the floor. Two passengers were sucked out through the hole. The crew landed safely at Doha.
- 2 August 1985, Delta 191: on approach to Dallas/Fort Worth, the crew flew into a thunderstorm cell and met a microburst near the ground. The TriStar touched down short and broke up; 134 of 163 died, and one driver on the ground was killed.
Delta 191 is the accident most often linked to the windshear warning systems that airliners and large US airports use today.
What is left out
On 3 May 1986 a bomb hidden in a spares kit exploded as passengers boarded an Air Lanka TriStar at Colombo, killing 14 of the 128 on board. Sri Lanka's government blamed Tamil Tiger rebels. Acts of unlawful interference are listed but not counted in the score; our methodology explains why. Counting all causes, ten TriStars were 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.
A small fleet
About 5.4 million flights is a small base, so a single accident moves the rate a lot. The method starts every type from the average of its design generation and moves it towards its own record as flights add up. The TriStar's own history pulls it the right way, but less than a big fleet's would.
How to tell if you are on one
Flight trackers show L101. The giveaway is the centre engine: on a TriStar it sits at the base of the fin, with an air intake on top of the fuselage, while on a DC-10 the engine is mounted higher up, through the fin itself.
Questions people ask
Can you still fly on a TriStar?
No. The last TriStars in passenger service were retired years ago. The only one still flying is a modified L-1011 that carries Pegasus rockets aloft and launches them in flight; it has no passengers.
What was the worst TriStar accident?
Saudi Arabian Airlines flight 163 on 19 August 1980. A fire broke out in the rear cargo hold after take-off from Riyadh. The crew landed back at Riyadh, but the aircraft was not evacuated, and all 301 people on board died. The source of the fire was never found.
Was the TriStar safer than the DC-10?
Its record is better, with fewer fatal accidents per flight, but the TriStar also flew far fewer flights, so the numbers carry more uncertainty. The DC-10 suffered early design problems, notably its cargo door; the TriStar had no comparable flaw in the accident record.
Why did the TriStar stop flying?
Mostly economics. Lockheed built only 250 and stopped in 1984. A three-engine jet with a flight engineer cost more to run than the twin-engine widebodies that replaced it, such as the Boeing 767 and Airbus A330.
Sources
- 1.ASN record: Eastern Air Lines flight EA401, Everglades, 29 December 1972 (opens in a new tab) · Aviation Safety Network
- 2.ASN record: Saudi Arabian Airlines flight SV163, Riyadh, 19 August 1980 (opens in a new tab) · Aviation Safety Network
- 3.ASN record: Saudi Arabian Airlines flight SV162, over Qatar, 23 December 1980 (opens in a new tab) · Aviation Safety Network
- 4.ASN record: Delta Air Lines flight DL191, Dallas/Fort Worth, 2 August 1985 (opens in a new tab) · Aviation Safety Network
- 5.ASN record: Air Lanka TriStar bombing, Colombo, 3 May 1986 (opens in a new tab) · Aviation Safety Network
- 6.SafetyScorer fleet model (World Bank departures, OpenSky averages) (opens in a new tab)Passenger departures 1972 to 7 October 2026 from a fleet model: deliveries with a median passenger service life of about 23 years and about 975 departures per aircraft per year (average of similar types in OpenSky). OpenSky sees too few of these aircraft because they were retired before 2019. Uncertainty roughly ±50%.