The apparent loss of Malaysia Airlines’ flight MH370 over the South China Sea is all the more shocking for aviation experts because it is so entirely at odds with the previous record of the Boeing 777, widely regarded as one of the most successful commercial aircraft of all time.
Some 1,178 of the twin-aisle aircraft have rolled out of Boeing’s main plant near Everett, Washington, since 1995 and they have flown more than 5m flights without suffering a catastrophic loss of the kind that appears to have taken place in the early hours of Saturday.
The 777’s remarkable record is a testament to the improvements in aircraft design stemming from the growing use of computer modelling ahead of first flights. Those advances have largely eliminated the kind of inbuilt structural flaws that bedevilled the de Havilland Comet, the first commercial jet airliner, which suffered several mid-air break-ups because excessive internal stresses led to metal fatigue.