Type of plane in Madrid crash old but seen as safe

By Bill Rigby

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 line of planes is aging and nearly obsolete but generally regarded as safe, despite the fatal crash of one in Madrid on Wednesday with the loss of about 145 lives.

The single-aisle, twin-engine family of aircraft has been a workhorse for U.S. airlines for almost 30 years with only some minor maintenance issues in the United States earlier this year.

It is only now being phased out, but more because of its costly fuel consumption than its safety record.

"It's been a long time since one of these had an accident," said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at aerospace consultants Teal Group. "They are a little thirsty by standards of other planes, but they have a very strong safety record."

The type of plane that crashed in Madrid was a 15-year-old MD-82, an early variant of the MD-80 family, which can carry up to 172 passengers on short and medium-range flights up to about 2,700 miles (4,300 km).

The MD-80 family was designed by McDonnell Douglas in the 1970s as the successor to its DC-9 line and entered service in 1980. The last one rolled off the California production line in 1999, two years after Boeing Co bought McDonnell Douglas.

Overall, 1,191 MD-80s were delivered to 60 airlines across the world and 977 remain in service, according to World Airliner Census, published by industry trade magazine Flight International.

The MD-80 was overtaken in the 1990s by Boeing's revamped 737 and rival Airbus's A320 line of planes, which offer better fuel efficiency and comfort. Airbus, Boeing's arch rival, is a unit of European aerospace group EADS.