Dash - 8 is one of the safest turboprops ever made - it has fantastic short field performance, I witnessed a demo at Yankee stadium where a D-8 landed on the diamond,periouted & took off again outof the stadium. THe ATR was initially plagued with aileron / icing problems hence the addition of vortex generators to "patch" the aileron effectiveness when iced up.. That being said - the newer ATR's are much improved with composite materials & noise cancellation technologies. Most thought the turboprop would have been a dead issue by now because 1) public perceptions of safety of jets over turboprops & 2) the comparable cost of jets IE 737s, A320 & MD-80s can be had for a song after the collapsing asset values following 9-11. However, with the new Embraer ERJ-170 - a mini-777 for 24 million - I wonder how long turboprops can hang in there ..... smashing bugs ..??