Saab 340

The Saab 340 has a solid record for a small turboprop. Four fatal accidents in about 9.5 million passenger flights since 1984, none caused by a design flaw. The catch today is age: the youngest airframes are over 25 years old, so maintenance and the airline matter more than the type.

Where you fly on a Saab 340

Saab built the 340 as a 30- to 36-seat commuter airliner, first with Fairchild in the US, then alone. It first flew in 1983, entered service in 1984, and production ended in the late 1990s after 459 aircraft. About 200 are still flying. The best-known passenger operator is Regional Express (Rex) in Australia, which links country towns to Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Others fly with small carriers in Europe, the Americas and the Pacific, and many have become freighters.

You are unlikely to meet one on a big airline's ticket in Western Europe or the US any more. It was replaced on most of those routes by the ATR 72, Dash 8 and regional jets.

The fatal record

All four fatal accidents happened on passenger flights:

• 4 April 1994, KLM Cityhopper 433, Amsterdam: a false low oil pressure warning led the crew to set one engine to flight idle and return. They lost control during a late go-around on the other engine. 3 of 24 died.
• 18 March 1998, Formosa Airlines, off Hsinchu, Taiwan: the crew took off at night with a known electrical bus failure that the rules did not allow, lost track of the aircraft's attitude and crashed into the sea shortly after departure. All 13 died.
• 10 January 2000, Crossair 498, Zürich: two minutes after a night take-off, the crew became disoriented in a turn and the aircraft dived into a field. All 10 died.
• 18 May 2011, SOL Líneas Aéreas 5428, Río Negro, Argentina: the aircraft flew into severe icing in cruise, lost speed and control, and crashed in Patagonia. All 22 died.

Three of these four, at Amsterdam, Hsinchu and Zürich, came down to confusion or disorientation in the cockpit, not to a failure the crew could not handle. The SOL crash is the type's main icing case. Like every turboprop of its size, the 340 cruises inside the altitude band where ice forms, and its pneumatic de-icing boots have limits in severe conditions. Investigators in Argentina focused on how the crew managed the icing.

Why small turboprops look worse

The Saab 340 is grouped with other modern turboprops in our methodology, a group with a higher accident rate than jets. Part of that is operating environment, not the airframe. Commuter turboprops fly short sectors, so they take off and land far more often per hour of flying, and most accidents happen near take-off and landing. They fly into smaller airports with fewer approach aids, and often with smaller airlines whose crews and maintenance have less depth. The Saab 340's record has held up well despite all this.

The faster, larger Saab 2000 is a separate family with its own page.

How to tell if you are on one

Flight trackers show SF34 for every version (340A, 340B and 340B Plus). The cabin has one seat on one side of the aisle and two on the other, a low wing and engines with four-blade propellers. If you are booked on a 340, ask the questions that matter for any older aircraft: is the airline well established, does it have its own maintenance base, and has its regulator ever grounded or sanctioned it? Those answers tell you more than the type code.