Boeing 737-800 safety record
The 737-800 and its siblings have one of the lowest accident rates of any airliner, across one of the largest numbers of flights ever flown by one type.
A low accident rate over an enormous number of flights
Boeing's annual accident summary measures this as fatal hull losses per million departures — how many times in a million flights an aircraft of the type was destroyed in an accident that killed someone. Across the worldwide jet fleet Boeing tracks, since 1959, the figure is 0.52. The 737-600 to -900 family stands at 0.08 — among the lowest of any airliner, over one of the largest numbers of flights.
Eleven fatal hull losses are in that count across nearly thirty years, the most recent the Jeju Air accident at Muan in December 2024.
The 737 NG in numbers
The wings are meant to bend
Watch a 737's wing in bumpy air and the tip moves. That's the wing flexing to absorb the gust instead of passing all of it into the cabin, and it's built to bend far further than anything the weather can ask of it.
As a mid-sized jet, the 737 responds to a gust more than a big widebody does. On a bumpy day you'll feel it more than on a long-haul flight, but the aircraft is built to take far more than any turbulence it will meet.
Six across in economy
The 737 seats six across in economy, three either side of one aisle. The drawing fits those six seats and the aisle into the cabin's published width.
The 737's cabin is a little narrower than the Airbus A320's, and those centimetres come out of the seats. Legroom is a separate choice each airline makes, so two 737-800s can feel quite different.
How big it really is
A 737-800 is a single-aisle jet of medium size: much smaller than any widebody, about the same as an Airbus A320. It's the shape most people picture when they think of a plane.
Tap any other airliner to lay it over the 737-800 at exactly the same scale.
The 737-800 in white, the 777 outlined in gold. Same scale, same metre.
Boeing 737-800 questions
How safe is the 737-800?
The 737-800 and its siblings have one of the lowest accident rates of any airliner, across one of the largest numbers of flights ever flown by one type. Every figure on this page is sourced — the list is at the bottom.
Is the 737-800 the same as the 737 MAX?
No. The 737-800 belongs to the Next Generation family that came before the MAX. The MAX has larger, different engines and different flight-control software; the 737-800 was not part of the MAX grounding.
Why is the 737 so common?
Only the A320 family has been built in larger numbers, because it suits the short and medium flights that make up most of the world's air travel. Airlines like that pilots and engineers can move between versions with little extra training.
737 or A320: which is more comfortable?
The A320's cabin is slightly wider, so its seats can be a little wider. In practice the seat pitch the airline chooses usually matters more to how cramped a flight feels.
Every other airliner
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page is from the manufacturer, the certifying authority or the published accident record.
- Boeing Wingspan, Length, Cabin width, Typical seats, Economy, Seat width, Range
- EASA type certificate data sheet Cabin altitude, Engines
- airdatanews.com Delivered, Still being built
- Boeing First flight
- GE Aerospace In service since
- Boeing Accident record
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