Air France’s worst crash killed 228 people in 2009. Its last fatal crash was that same one.
Read that again. The airline has recorded no fatal accident since 2009. But its history is much heavier than that gap suggests. Between 1934 and 1962 alone, the record shows dozens of crashes. Below is a statistical breakdown of the airline’s documented accidents and incidents, built from Wikipedia’s list. The airline’s record starts in 1934, the year after its founding.
How I built this. I counted every event on Wikipedia’s Air France accidents list, 123 in total, then checked key figures against investigation reports and news coverage. The page calls itself “a selected list of the most noteworthy” events. So this is not a complete government record. Nine early entries say only “written off” with no casualty data. So I count those as unknown. Early decades are the thinnest. Read these totals as the known public record.
Total Number of Accidents and Incidents: How Many Crashes Has Air France Had?
The number is 123. That’s every event on the list from January 1934 to May 2024. It includes crashes, wartime shootdowns, a bomb, hijackings, ground fires and recent diversions.
Number of Fatal Crashes
79 of 123 events killed at least one person. That’s about 64% of the whole list, or 69% of the 114 events where the outcome is known. That rate looks high because the list is “noteworthy” events and because of the early decades. Of the 79 fatal events, 63 happened before 1960.
Number of Non-Fatal Crashes and Incidents
35 events had no fatalities. Another 9 have unknown outcomes. The non-fatal list is dominated by runway overruns, fires, engine failures and diversions.
Total Number of Deaths
About 1,789 deaths. That counts onboard fatalities plus people killed on the ground. Wartime attacks, one bomb and two hijackings account for about 100 of them. Without those, deaths from operational accidents total about 1,688.
The post-1960 numbers matter most. Fatal events fell from 63 before 1960 to 16 from 1960 on. Since 2001, there has been exactly one fatal event: Flight 447.
Number of Hijackings
11 hijackings. I counted them from the dated Aviation Safety Network records cited in Wikipedia’s hijacking footnotes: 1973, two in 1976, 1977, 1983, two in 1984, 1989, 1993, 1994 and 1999.
Two stand out:
Flight 139 (1976). Hijackers diverted an Airbus A300 to Entebbe, Uganda. Israeli commandos stormed the airport. All six hijackers died, along with three hostages. An elderly hostage, Dora Bloch, was later murdered.
Flight 8969 (1994). Four terrorists hijacked an A300 in Algiers and flew to Marseille. French special forces killed all four. Three hostages were executed.
Accidents Where Crew Factors Were Cited
15 events. That includes 11 fatal ones. Wikipedia’s text attributes these in whole or part to navigation errors, misjudged approaches, crew decisions or coordination. They account for about 485 deaths.
I treat this number with caution. Cause attribution changes with time. The June 1950 Bahrain crashes were first blamed on pilot error. A 1994 re-investigation found the wreck of one DC-4 and ruled out pilot error, concluding microbursts brought down both aircraft. I excluded those two from the 15.
Number of Boeing Accidents
19 events involved Boeing aircraft. 6 were fatal. Four are 707 disasters: Flight 007 (130 dead), Flight 117 (113), the 1968 Flight 212 (63) and the 1969 Flight 212 (62). A 727 wet-leased from TAME crashed in 1998 with 53 deaths. The sixth was a 1996 747 turbulence event with one death. The list includes that 1998 TAME flight, though it wasn’t an Air France aircraft.
Number of Airbus Accidents
11 events involved Airbus aircraft. 4 were fatal. The fatal ones were the 1976 Entebbe hijacking, the 1988 Habsheim A320 crash (3 dead), the 1994 hijacking (3 hostages killed) and Flight 447 (228 dead). The other seven ended without a death.
Accidents by Decade
Decade | Total Events | Fatal | Non-Fatal | Unknown | Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1930s (1934–39 | 22 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 106 |
1940s | 40 | 27 | 4 | 9 | 315 |
1950s | 24 | 15 | 9 | 0 | 279 |
1960s | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 681 |
1970s | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 7 |
1980s | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
1990s | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 57 |
2000s | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 341 |
2010s | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
2020s (to May 2024) | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
The pattern is clear. The 1930s and 1940s were dominated by small aircraft, weather and war. The 1960s had fewer events but the highest death toll, as the jet age brought bigger aircraft and bigger disasters. Since 2010, the list holds only non-fatal events. Note that 1930s entries start in 1934, and the airline was founded in 1933.
Deadliest Air France Accidents on Record
Flight 447 (2009), A330, Atlantic Ocean: 228 deaths
Flight 007 (1962), Boeing 707, Orly: 130 deaths
Flight 117 (1962), Boeing 707, Guadeloupe: 113 deaths
Flight 4590 (2000), Concorde, Gonesse: 113 deaths (109 onboard, 4 on the ground)
Flight 1611 (1968), Caravelle, off Nice: 95 deaths
What the Statements Said
Numbers can’t tell you what an accident meant. Here’s what investigators, officials and the airline said about four of them.
Flight 447 (2009): “We Cannot Blame This Crew”
William Voss, the president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation said "Absolutely, this accident didn't have to happen," according to Good Morning America. However, the BEA’s 2012 final report found that the icing of the pitot probes was “known but misunderstood by the aviation community at the time of the accident.” After the 2011 interim findings, Air France said “At this stage, there is no reason to question the crew’s technical skills.” BEA director Jean-Paul Troadec said of the pilots’ behavior: “we cannot blame this crew.”
Concorde Flight 4590 (2000): “Too Late”
The BEA said a “part lost by an aircraft that had taken off five minutes earlier” started the chain of events, per CBS News. The preliminary report included the captain’s final words, “Too late.” "No time, no," he added, per CNN. When the final report came out in 2002, an Air France spokesman said, “There is nothing new in this report.”
Flight 358 (2005): The Miracle in Toronto
All 309 people survived when an A340 skidded into a ravine at Toronto. Canada’s transport minister Jean Lapierre said “It’s nothing short of a miracle.” Chief investigator Real Levasseur told reporters “We do have some information that the aircraft did land long.”
Flight 296Q (1988): The First Fatal A320 Crash
An Airbus A320 crashed during an airshow flypast at Habsheim. Within a day, the pilots’ union president Christian Roger said there were early signs “the engines failed to restart.” Official reports later concluded the crew flew too low and too slow. The captain disputed that conclusion for decades.
Read next: American Airlines Accidents Statistics (1931 - 2025)
Does Air France Have a Bad Safety Record?
Short answer: its history is heavy, but its recent record is strong, and the ratings agree. The long answer depends on which years you look at.
What Is Air France’s Safety Rating?
AirlineRatings gives Air France its top mark: 7 out of 7 stars. A July 2026 review of the airline reports a 7-out-of-7 score and an IOSA registration. A 2024 ranking placed Air France 16th in the world with 7 stars.
That score hasn’t been a straight line:
2018: An Air Journal comment noted AirlineRatings gave Air France 6 out of 7, with the missing star attributed to its fatal accidents.
September 2022: After two pilots were suspended for fighting in the cockpit, AirlineRatings downgraded the airline from a seven-star to a five-star airline, citing the incident and the BEA report.
2024 to 2026: Sources show the rating back at 7 stars.
What the Rating Measures
AirlineRatings awards stars for IOSA audit registration (two stars), serious pilot-related incidents over a period of up to two years and other audit checks. It tests whether an airline follows international safety standards. It isn’t a body-count ranking.
The Numbers in Context
My tally of Wikipedia’s list adds nuance:
Fatal events before 1960: 63. Fatal events from 1960 on: 16.
Fatal events since 2001: 1. That’s Flight 447 in 2009.
Fatal events since 2000: 2. Concorde Flight 4590 (113 deaths) and Flight 447 (228).
Fatal events in the 2010s and 2020s: zero.
Old crashes still shape reputation. They’re also a different industry. Early losses involved small propeller aircraft, weather and war.
What the Public Says
Opinion is split. These are forum comments, not data, and most date from the years after Flight 447.
The skeptics. One FlyerTalk member wrote, “I think they have a questionable safety record.” A MoneySavingExpert commenter asked whether Air France has a poor record and answered, “Surprisingly, yes.” On PPRuNe, one poster declared, “Anyone who thinks Air France has a good safety record is delusional.” That poster claimed 337 deaths this century. My count is 341, across two fatal events since 2000. The comment dates from 2012, and Air France has had no fatal accident since 2009. A 2013-era book also called the airline “second-division” in a critique of safety lapses, which Air France defended against.
The defenders. When a nervous FlyerTalk poster asked for reassurance, a reply said, “Absolutely nothing to worry about!” A Mumsnet commenter, while personally cautious, conceded you’re “much more likely to be killed en route to the airport” than on a flight.
My Take
Does Air France have a bad safety record? Historically, it has a long and painful one. Today, it doesn’t. The airline has had no fatal accident since 2009, it’s IOSA-registered and top-rated by AirlineRatings. Meanwhile, the 2022 downgrade shows that crew-conduct incidents still move the needle. Both things are true.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many accidents has Air France had?
Wikipedia’s list documents 123 accidents and incidents from 1934 to 2024. 79 were fatal.
What was Air France’s deadliest crash?
Flight 447 in 2009, which killed all 228 people on board, including one married couple from Louisiana.
When was Air France’s last fatal accident?
Flight 447 in June 2009 is the last fatal event on Wikipedia’s list.
Has Air France been hijacked?
Yes. I counted 11 hijackings from the list’s cited records, including Entebbe in 1976 and the Marseille hijacking in 1994.
Data compiled from Wikipedia’s “Air France accidents and incidents” list. Plus, investigation and news reports. The list is selective and not an official record. Corrections welcome.
