Foreword
Turbo-propeller aircraft play a vital role in the global aviation landscape, particularly in regional and short-haul markets. Their efficiency, reliability, and flexibility make them indispensable for connecting smaller cities and remote areas that are often inaccessible to other transport options. Turboprops offer an optimal balance between performance and operating costs, supporting economic development, and enhancing accessibility. Importantly, ongoing advancements in technology and safety systems have significantly improved their operational safety, reducing accident rates and increasing utilization.
The evolution of safety since 1980 illustrates the aviation industry’s ongoing commitment to minimizing risk and improving operational reliability, especially in regional air transport.
This publication provides data and statistical analysis of aviation accident involving large turbo-propeller aircraft.
Definition
Fatal accident: An occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight until such time as all such persons have disembarked, in which a person is fatally injured as a result of:
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- Being in the aircraft, or
- Direct contact with any part of the aircraft, including parts which have become detached from the aircraft, or
- Direct exposure to jet blast
Operational accident: An accident excluding terrorism acts, military actions, sabotage, suicide and the similar.
Hull loss: An accident in which the aircraft has been destroyed or beyond economical repairs.
Revenue flight: a flight involving the transport of passengers or freight. training, ferry, positioning, demonstration, maintenance, acceptance, and test flights are excluded.
Definition of key aircraft accident categories
| LOC_I: | Loss of control in flight, not primarily due to SCF | CFIT: | Controlled Flight into terrain, in-flight collision with terrain, water or obstacles without indications of loss of control |
| RE: | Runway excursion, veer off or overrun off the runway surface | ARC: | Abnormal runway contact. Hard landings and tail strikes are included in this category. |
| SCF: | Failure or malfunction of an aircraft system or component |
Scope
This brochure covers all the turbo-propeller commercial aircraft with 20 seats or above, including cargo aircraft on the same type, for which consistent commercial operational data are available.
The analysis starts in 1985, year of the first ATR flight.
Only commercial revenue value flights and operational accidents involving a hull loss or fatalities are considered.
Source of Data
For ATR aircraft, flight operations data and accident details are based on the ATR operators’ reported information and ICAO official accident qualification. For other aircraft type, the data are compiled by Cirium.
Accident rate are subject to adjustment following a change of the occurrence classification retrospectively.
List of aircraft type involved in the study:
- ATR 42 and 72,
- Let L-410 and L-610,
- Antonov AN-140 AN-24,
- BAE Viscount, ATP, HS 748, Jetstream 31, Jetstream 41
- De Havilland Canada , DHC-6, DHC-7 and DHC-8
- Dornier 228 and 328
- Embraer EMB-110 and EMB-120
- Fairchild Merlin IV, F-27 and FH-227
- Fokker 50 and F.27
- Convair 580
- Gulfstream G-159
- Hawker-Siddeley HS 748
- CASA C212, CN235
- NAMC YS-11
- Saab 2000 and 340
- Beech 1900
- Viking Air Short 330 and Short 360
- CAIC – MA60
- Aerospatiale Nord 262
ATR avionic technology
In 2011, ATR released the New Avionics Suite (NAS) with the new -600 series aircraft. It presents a significant technological leap forward in regional aviation, building on the proven reliability of earlier ATR models. One of its most notable upgrades is the advanced avionics suite, which replaces the analog and mixed-display systems of older ATR versions. The new glass cockpit features five LCD screens, improved situational awareness, and more intuitive flight management tools, greatly enhancing pilot efficiency and reducing workload.
ATR 72-600 and ATR 42-600 cockpit.
The -600 series is the only ATR variant in production since the entry into service and has become quickly dominant within the ATR worldwide fleet.
Percentage of departures between ATR variants in 2024
Evolution of accident rate
Since the 1980s, the accident rate for turbo-propeller aircraft has seen a notable improvement, reflecting decades of progress in aviation safety. Over time, improvements in aircraft design, more rigorous maintenance standards, enhanced pilot training, and the integration of advanced safety technologies have significantly reduced both the frequency and severity of accidents. Regulatory efforts and global safety initiatives have equally contributed to this positive trend.
The graphs below show the number of departure and the 10 years moving average per million flights both ATR-600 series and worldwide turbo-propeller fleet.
In 2024, around 2.5 million flights are realized by the worldwide turbo-propeller fleet, for which the ATR-600 contributed for nearly 40% of them. The fatal rate for the ATR-600 series reaches 0.13, meaning in average 1 fatal accident over 10 million flights, four times below the turbo-propeller market.
The rates for the -600 series are computed from 2021, corresponding the tenth-year anniversary of the entry into service. The dotted line gives the trend prior the tenth-year anniversary but may be statistically biased due to the absence of the ten-year feedback. The dotted line started in 2015, year when the -600 series accumulated one million flight cycles.
Zooming out to all the ATR fleet, the graphs below show the 10 years moving rate per million departures for both ATR fleet and worldwide turbo-propeller fleet. For ATR aircraft, the data begins for the tenth-year anniversary after the entry into service of the first ATR (1985 with the ATR 42-300).
In 2018, ATR flight became dominant and shared 50% of the flights of the turbo-propeller market with all other aircraft types combined, and it keeps increasing. In 2024, ATR fleet achieved 60% of the total world commercial departure of for the large turbo-propellers fleet.
With a such dominant position, the worldwide trend become statistically driven by the ATR one.
We observe a stable fatal accident rate on ATR fleet and an improving overall hull loss rate since 2018.
Accident Categories
The charts on the right show what are the 3 main categories of accident over the last decade for both fatal and non-fatal accident for the turbo propeller aircraft. The values are given in percentage of the total number of accidents.
LOC-I and CFIT represent a large majority of the fatal accident for the large turbo-propellers, and the sole categories for the ATR fleet.
The reasons of the hull losses are more various. We find LOC-I as well in the top 3 because a loss of control in-flight in most cases includes both the loss of the aircraft and fatalities. Nevertheless, the first two reasons are related to operation close to the runway, with ARC and RE. Even though they do not necessary lead to fatal injuries, the damage to the aircraft can be substantial.
Conclusion
The ATR-600 series demonstrates the benefits of the new technologies and constant safety improvement achieved by the aviation system. ATR has always promoted that aircraft technologies go hand in hand with the improvements in infrastructure, training, and maintenance.
The statistical analysis also demonstrates the industry commitment to continuous improvement in safety performance. However, we must never be complacent and must continue to implement flight safety improvement at every opportunity.
