The lifespan of an aircraft is measured in pressurization cycles. Each time a plane takes a flight where its cabin is pressurized, the fuselage and wings must withstand the generated pressure.
Since both parts are made of multiple massive plates connected with rivets and fasteners, repeated pressurization cycles develop metal fatigue. In other words, there will be cracks around the fastener holes.
As for the engine, the valuable life (at its full potential) is around 40 years, and Boeing and Airbus, the biggest aircraft manufacturers, build their planes to last longer.
Still, it depends on the airlines’ abilities to maintain the engines well-maintained, and parts are replaced regularly.
On October 20, 1977, a 30-year-old Convair CV-240 passenger aircraft crashed in Gillsburg, Mississippi, after running out of fuel midair. The problem was quite simple: the fuel gauge in the old plane was inaccurate.
t might not be a problem for road vehicles but a catastrophic mistake for a commercial airplane.
It carried two flight crews and 24 passengers, including the entire members of rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd.
10 /10 Casualties
Six of the 26 occupants were killed due to the accident.
The band’s Ronnie Van Zant (lead vocalist), Cassie Gaines (backing vocalist), Steve Gaines (guitarist/vocalist and Cassie’s younger brother), and Dean Kilpatrick (assistant road manager) were among the casualties.
Pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray also did not survive.
Drummer Artimus Pyle was in good enough condition to pull the survivors out of the wreckage and seek help in a rural farmhouse in Louisiana. The accident halted Lynyrd Skynyrd’s musical career for a decade.
9 /10 Greenville To Baton Rouge
Three days after the pioneering rock band released “Street Survivors,” they went on a tour to promote the album.
They performed at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium on October 20, 1977, and were supposed to play again at Louisiana State University.
The band leased a Convair CV-240 out of Texas to take them to the venue.
Aerosmith had planned to use the same plane, but safety concerns led them elsewhere, a good decision on their part. Lynyrd Skynyrd had little option, so they boarded the plane anyway.