Boeing 747 hull losses

As of December 2024, a total of 64 Boeing 747 aircraft, or just above 4% of the total number of 747s built, first flown commercially in 1970, have been involved in accidents and incidents resulting in a hull loss, meaning that the aircraft was either destroyed or damaged beyond economical repair.^[1] Of the 64 Boeing 747 aircraft losses, 32 resulted in no loss of life; in one, a hostage was murdered; and in one, a terrorist died.^[1]

Some of the aircraft that were declared damaged beyond economical repair were older 747s that sustained relatively minor damage. If these planes had been newer, repairing them might have been economically viable. This is becoming less common with the 747's increasing obsolescence as a passenger aircraft. ^[2][3]

Some 747s have been involved in accidents resulting in the highest death toll of any civil aviation accident, the highest death toll of any single airplane accident, and the highest death toll of a midair collision. As with most airliner accidents, the root of cause(s) in these incidents involved a confluence of multiple factors that rarely could be ascribed to flaws with the 747's design or its flying characteristics.