I would like to clarify the misnoma that QANTAS has never had a fatality.
During WW2, the Army and RAAF commisioned QANTAS to run evacuation flights out of PNG due to the advancing Japs. They were flying Catalina's, which were a twin engine flying boat. Unfortunately, a few of these aircraft were lost at sea during the night, never to be seen again. Catalina's were notoriously slow flyers, so in order to avoid detection by Jap radar, Pilots took the dangerous manouver of flying close to the sea.
Where the claim that QANTAS has never had a fatality comes from, is the fact that they have never had a fatality during the Jet age. Which in itself is a testament to the dedication that QANTAS engineers had to their jobs.
I still would not fly with any other carrier than QANTAS.
Im am too concerned about the latest rash of incidents involving Qantas planes. Sure I prefer to fly Qantas, however, I do think people do attach too much importance on great service in the plane rather than what is going on on the mechanical front. Great meals and good looking hosties doesnt make the plane any safer.
The safety record of Qantas is obviously first rate, but doesnt necessarily mean it is the safest. There are other airlines all over the world that are yet to kill anyone.
A lot of the excellent track record of Qantas is more to do with the nature of the service they are providing and where they fly to. Its worth noting that no other airline(large passenger plane) has had a fatality in Australia either. Australia is a very safe place to fly in and out of: high visibility at airports, no snow ice , tornadoes, mountains surrounding airports, relatively low airport traffic etc. While they fly to international destinations, they are the major airports and dont include many of the trickier smaller airports.
Qantas is also a predominantly long haul airline, risks of incidents are highest at take off and landings.....other short haul airlines have incredible numbers of take offs/landings per day compared to Qantas.
Most fatigue issues/ faults show up on the short haul fleet first, Qantas is often the beneficiary of flaws found out from this.