Qantas' claim is a carefully-worded claim that they have never had a hull loss or pax fatality in the jet age (1951 onwards, in QF claims). This claim is always modified by lax journalism, word of mouth, and ignorant people, into ... "QF have never had a hull loss or pax fatality, EVER."
It doesn't take much research to find that QF have had many major aircraft crashes, including total losses (pax & aircraft), and many crashes weren't even recorded in detail (1920's).
During WW2, QF was cheerfully regarded as an arm of the RAAF by many Australians... and the Japs most certainly didn't distinguish between civilian aircraft (particularly QF aircraft) and RAAF aircraft.
The worst QF disasters were...
De Havilland DH-9C G-AUED - 24 Mar 1927 - 3 fatalities
De Havilland DH-86 VH-USG - 15 Nov 1934 - 4 fatalities
De Havilland DH-86 VH-USE - 20 Feb 1942 - 9 fatalities
Short S-23 (flying boat) VH-ADU - 22 Apr 1943 - 13 fatalities
Lockheed 18 Lodestar VH-CAB - 26 Nov 1943 - 15 fatalities
Short S-23 (flying boat) VH-ABB - 11 Oct 1944 - 1 fatality
Avro 691 Lancastrian (BOAC G-AGLAX, operated by QF) - disappeared between Colombo & Cocos Is (no trace found) - 23 Mar 1946 - 10 fatalities
Avro 691 Lancastrian VH-EAS - 07 April 1949 - hull loss, no fatalities
De Havilland Drover II VH-EBQ - 16 Jul 1951 - 7 fatalities
Lockheed L1049 VH-EAC - 24 August 1960 - hull loss, no fatalities
Possibly the nearest that QF came to total disaster was the last event, the rejected TO of the Super Constellation at Mauritius. To have everyone survive a rejected TO crash of a Super Constellation loaded with 8280 US gallons of avgas, that caught fire immediately after crashing, was nothing less than a miracle.
Last edited by onetrack; 5th Dec 2010 at 00:53.
Reason: clarification