airline safety

Lufthansa safety record

Lufthansa hasn't had a fatal accident on its own flights since 1993 — more than thirty years. On airlines like Lufthansa, the chance of a passenger dying in an accident is about 1 in 80 million per flight.

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No one on board has died in an accident since 1993
Chance of dying in an accident, per flight1 in 80 million

For airlines based in Germany and the other countries in the same safety group, 2018–2022 (MIT study).

Put another way: if you took a flight every single day, you would, on average, fly for about 219,000 years before a fatal accident happened to you.

the record

More than thirty years without a fatal accident on its own flights

Lufthansa's last fatal accident on its own flights was in September 1993, when an A320 landing at Warsaw in wind shear, with a tailwind on a wet runway, overran into an embankment; two people died. The Polish investigation named the crew's decisions and actions as the main cause. In 1974 a Lufthansa 747 took off from Nairobi with its leading-edge flaps retracted and crashed, killing 59.

Other fatal accidents came on flights run for Lufthansa or by its subsidiaries: in 1993 a Contact Air Dash 8 flying as Lufthansa CityLine crashed short of the runway at Paris; in 1999 a cargo 727 flown by Hinduja Cargo Services for Lufthansa Cargo crashed after take-off from Kathmandu. Its subsidiaries Condor, in 1988, and Germanwings, in 2015, flew under their own names; the French investigation found Germanwings 9525 was deliberately flown into the Alps by its co-pilot. All of these are shown apart on the line below.

Two Lufthansa aircraft were hijacked in the 1970s: at Rome in 1973, and the Landshut in 1977, whose captain was killed before German special forces freed the hostages at Mogadishu.

Today's Lufthansa was founded in 1953 and has flown since 1955.

since 1970

Every fatal accident, on one line

Solid dots are its own flights; hollow ones were flown by a partner or subsidiary under its name; grey rings are hijackings and attacks. Deaths that investigators don't class as accidents (such as trespassers) aren't shown.

197019801990200020102020
Its own flights Partner, subsidiary or predecessor airline flights Hijackings and attacks
  1. Mar 2015 Germanwings 9525 · Airbus A320 · French AlpsFlew under Germanwings's own name; the French BEA found the co-pilot deliberately locked the captain out of the cockpit and flew the aircraft into the mountains. Germanwings was then a Lufthansa subsidiary.
  2. Jul 1999 Lufthansa Cargo 8533 · Boeing 727-200F · near Kathmandu, NepalA cargo flight operated by Hinduja Cargo Services for Lufthansa Cargo flew into a hill shortly after take-off from Kathmandu; its 5 crew died.
  3. Sep 1993 LH2904 · Airbus A320 · WarsawOverran the runway into an embankment after landing in wind shear with a tailwind on a wet runway; the Polish investigation named crew decisions and actions as the main cause.
  4. Jan 1993 LH5634 · de Havilland Dash 8-300 · Paris Charles de GaulleA Contact Air aircraft flying as Lufthansa CityLine crashed short of the runway on a second approach, after the runway ahead of it had been closed.
  5. Jan 1988 Condor 3782 · Boeing 737-200 · near Izmir, TurkeyA charter flight of Condor, then a wholly owned Lufthansa subsidiary flying under its own name, flew into a hill on approach to Izmir; all 16 on board died.
  6. Jul 1979 LH527 · Boeing 707 freighter · near Rio de JaneiroA cargo flight flew into a mountain during its climb from Rio de Janeiro; Brazil's investigation blamed incomplete instructions from Rio departure control, with the crew's acceptance of them contributing.
  7. Oct 1977 LH181 · Boeing 737 · Aden and MogadishuHijacked on a flight from Palma; the hijackers killed the captain before German special forces freed the hostages at Mogadishu.
  8. Nov 1974 LH540 · Boeing 747 · NairobiThe crew began the take-off with the leading-edge flaps retracted, because the system that drives them had not been switched on, and the aircraft stalled after lift-off (Kenyan finding).
  9. Dec 1973 LH303 · Boeing 737 · Rome, then Athens and KuwaitGunmen who had just attacked another aircraft at Rome seized the parked Lufthansa jet; two people were killed during the hijacking.
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at a glance

Lufthansa in numbers

Founded
1953
Country
Germany
Alliance
Star Alliance
Main hubs
Frankfurt · Munich
IATA safety audit (IOSA)
Registered
the fleet

What Lufthansa flies

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An iPhone Lock Screen showing the FlyBud Live Activity: Barcelona to Istanbul, gate B23, boarding, with the same flight in the Dynamic Island at the top of the screen.

Lufthansa safety questions

How safe is Lufthansa?

Lufthansa hasn't had a fatal accident on its own flights since 1993 — more than thirty years. On airlines like Lufthansa, the chance of a passenger dying in an accident is about 1 in 80 million per flight. Every fact on this page is sourced — the list is at the bottom.

What is Lufthansa's safety rating?

FlyBud doesn't invent a score. What matters is the record, which you can check: no one on board has died in an accident on a Lufthansa mainline flight since 1993. It is registered with IATA's operational safety audit (IOSA), which registered airlines must renew every two years.

Has Lufthansa ever crashed?

Yes, in the past: its last fatal accident on its own flights was at Warsaw in 1993. None since.

sources

Where these facts come from

Every fact on this page is from official accident reports, the airline's own filings or the published accident record.

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