Hull loss

A hull loss is an aviation accident that catastrophically damages the aircraft beyond economical repair,[2] resulting in a total loss. The term also applies to situations in which the aircraft is missing, the search for their wreckage is terminated or when the wreckage is logistically inaccessible.[3]

Number of fatalities from airliners' hull loss accidents per year (1940–2023)

Wreckage of Asiana Airlines Flight 214, which was written off as a hull-loss accident[1]

The metric of "Hull losses per 100,000 flight departures" has been used throughout the aviation industry to measure the relative risk of a given flight or aircraft.[2] From 1959 to 2006, the first part of the mainstream jet aircraft era, 384 of 835 hull losses, or 46%, were non-fatal.[4] Airlines typically have insurance to cover hull loss on a twelve-month basis.

Constructive hull loss takes into account other incidental expenses beyond repair, such as salvage, logistical costs of repairing non-airworthy aircraft within the confines of the incident site, and recertifying the aircraft, among other factors. Insurance policies covering any asset that is subject to depreciation typically pay the insured a formulaic used item value, so the property will often be a write-off as full repairs minus this sum resemble a cost of a new replacement.

The first jet airliner suffered 26 hull losses, half of which were deadly. It was determined that the large square windows were the cause and all subsequent airliner designs have rounded windows.