A crewmember stands near the remains of the fuselage of the ill-fated Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501, on the deck of rescue ship Crest Onyx in port in Jakarta, Indonesia, on March 2. The Airbus A320-200 with 162 people on board crashed into the Java Sea on Dec. 28 while flying from Surabaya, East Java, to Singapore.(Photo: Dita Alangkara, AP)
The plane involved in the Germanwings crash in France, the Airbus A320, is known as a relatively safe aircraft and is a workhorse of the fleet that is comparable to the Boeing 737.
The A320 family of planes — which includes the 321, 319 and 318 — had 0.14 fatal accidents for every million flights, according to a Boeing study of crashes from 1959 through 2013. That rate was similar to 0.11 for new models of the 737 and one-sixth of the 0.89 rate for early models of the 737, according to the study.
The plane has been involved in several high-profile crashes, though.
In January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 struck geese while taking off from New York's LaGuardia airport and ditched in the Hudson River. Everyone survived.
Overseas, Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 crashed in bad weather in the Java Sea in December 2014. The cause is under investigation.
About 3,660 of the A320 are in operation worldwide, according to Airbus. The A320 family is a popular single-aisle aircraft, with 6,200 flying worldwide.
The planes have flown 150 million flight hours in 85 million flights, according to Airbus. The company says it has orders to build an additional 10,500 planes in the A320 family.
"We have been informed of an accident involving an A320 family aircraft and all efforts are now going towards assessing the situation," Airbus said in a statement. "We will provide further information as soon as available."
Statement from Flight Safety Foundation president and CEO,
Jon Beatty, CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, an industry group that studies aviation safety, said Germanwings hadn't had a major accident before Tuesday's crash.
"We expect that the investigators from the French and German authorities will find the black boxes and the cause of this tragedy will be determined quickly," Beatty said.
The Germanwings aircraft was produced in 1991 and delivered to the parent airline Lufthansa, according to Airbus. The plane has been flown 58,300 hours in about 46,700 flights, the company said.
Airbus said advisers will be dispatched to assist the French crash investigation.
"The concerns and sympathy of the Airbus employees go to the families, friends and loved ones affected by the accident," Airbus said in a statement.
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