The Dreaded Crash

As Masai herdsmen looked on in horror, the inevitable finally occurred last week: the first fatal crash of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. Seconds after takeoff from Nairobi, Lufthansa Flight LH 540 en route to Johannesburg shuddered violently, then sank tail first from an altitude of less than 200 ft. Lufthansa reported that for reasons still not clear, the leading-edge wing flaps were not in the extended position after takeoff. Thus, the aircraft did not have enough wing lift to climb.

The accident was not the massive disaster it might have been for an elephantine airplane with a capacity of 361 passengers. Fortunately, only 157 people were aboard. Of that total, 59 died; they had sat in the plane's rear section, which struck the ground first. But 98 persons survived.

The 747 was one of 237 in commercial service. Since the jumbo jet began flying almost five years ago, it has carried 75 million passengers a total of 193 billion passenger miles. By comparison, the smaller Boeing 707 flew 1.5 billion such miles before suffering its first crash in which passengers were killed. Other commercial planes, while extremely safe, also have not done quite so well as the 747. Even with the Nairobi tragedy, it still holds the most impressive safety record in aviation history.

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