Accident after which an aircraft is destroyed, goes missing or is so badly damaged that it is not repaired and never returns to service.
What it is
The term comes from insurance, where the ‘hull’ is the aircraft itself, and the industry uses hull losses as a yardstick of accident severity. It is not an ICAO Annex 13 category but an economic one: an aircraft counts as a hull loss when it is destroyed, when it is missing or cannot be recovered, or when it is damaged and not repaired for any reason, including a financial decision by its owner.
That last point explains why age matters so much. A new jet with major structural damage is usually repaired, because the work costs less than the aircraft is worth; the same damage to a 30-year-old airframe may see it written off, even though it could technically be fixed. A hull loss therefore does not necessarily involve injuries, and many end with everyone on board unhurt.
Once the loss is declared, the insurer pays out to the owner, and the remains are usually salvaged for spare parts or scrapped.
On Vuelopedia
On Vuelopedia, the event history in an aircraft record lists the accidents and scrappings on file.
Related terms
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This page was last updated on October 9, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Hull loss. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/hull-loss
MLA
“Hull loss.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/hull-loss. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Hull loss.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/hull-loss.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Hull loss. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/hull-loss (Accessed: 16 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_hull_loss,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Hull loss}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-09},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/hull-loss},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/hull-loss}},
urldate = {2026-10-16},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/hull-loss |title=Hull loss |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}