The Ten Worst Passenger Planes Still In Service

Quote: Pacomartin

You don't see as many low cost airlines using older jets these days. The preference now is to fly with newer jets.

The rationale for older planes was much lower capital costs, which allowed you to get more planes for the same money. That's important if you want to have capacity early and quickly. But then the higher operating costs and maintenance costs begin to be a burden.

Quote: Nareed

The rationale for older planes was much lower capital costs, which allowed you to get more planes for the same money. That's important if you want to have capacity early and quickly. But then the higher operating costs and maintenance costs begin to be a burden.

Watching a series on Netflix - Ice Pilots
Its about Buffalo Airways based in Yellowknife Canada
their fleet

Lockheed L-188 Electra Freighters
Lockheed L-188 Electra Sprayer
Lockheed L-188 Electra Tanker
Douglas DC-4
Douglas DC-4 Tankers
Douglas DC-3
Curtiss C-46
Canadair CL-215
Canso
Baron
King Air
Travel Air
Cessna 185
Cessna 310 with FLIR 
Norseman

When I fly DTW>LAS on Delta, the vast majority of the time it's on a 757. Most of them seem like they have been recently renovated with the nice new lighting and the entertainment systems in the seats.

Quote: ams288

When I fly DTW>LAS on Delta, the vast majority of the time it's on a 757. Most of them seem like they have been recently renovated with the nice new lighting and the entertainment systems in the seats.

Older planes are safe if properly maintained. The problem is that an aging machine is much more maintenance intensive than a newer one. With planes, too, there are issues of metal fatigue on the airframe. And as we've recently learned from American's 767 fire, of fatigue on engine parts as well (though that was a relatively young 767).

Quote: terapined

Watching a series on Netflix - Ice Pilots
Its about Buffalo Airways based in Yellowknife Canada
their fleet

Never heard of it but I have been looking for something new to watch on Netflix. I will probably watch a few episodes this week and decide if I should continue.

Quote: Nareed

Older planes are safe if properly maintained.

Yes, but an airline has to deal with public relations. With a damning article like the one posted above, If Allegiant has an accident in the next three years before they can retire those older jets, they will have a difficult time. Perhaps they should try and accelerate their schedule.

Southwest has retired 192 jets (current fleet is 715 of which 91 Boeing 737-300s which will be retired soon). But as far as I know, all their jets were purchased brand new.

Quote: Pacomartin

Yes, but an airline has to deal with public relations. With a damning article like the one posted above, If Allegiant has an accident in the next three years before they can retire those older jets, they will have a difficult time. Perhaps they should try and accelerate their schedule.

Judging by the article, Allegiant does not properly maintain their fleet.

Thing is, planes are very, very safe and have multiple redundancies. When you learn about aircraft accident investigations, you realize the vast majority involve errors by the crew, and the next big cause is poor maintenance. When one system fails due to poor maintenance, often other systems can take up the slack, but not always.

The simplest illustration is with engines. All commercial aircraft can survive the loss of one engine, even a beat-up old MD-80 that has bounced around a dozen airlines. But if a thrust-reverser deploys on takeoff, that's really bad. there are ways to deal with it, but they're not easy and time is very, very short.

Russia's aviation authority has grounded the Sukhoi SuperJet, due to signs of metal fatigue found on the tail of one.

The model's been in production just six years. That's way too soon for metal fatigue. But then the AA 767 that caught fire recently seems to have been a case of metal fatigue in engine parts, although that plane and its engines were relatively recently made.

If you find fatigue in a far-too-young piece once, tis' an oddity. You find it twice, it's a trend. So what's going on? Disparate though these two incidents are, all i can think of is poor quality metals, or defective alloys, which might be more prone to fatigue.