First, I’m not sure why you rank the original and classic 737 so high, given the fatal rudder issues, which Boeing tried to hide in a similar way as the -max sa

First, I’m not sure why you rank the original and classic 737 so high, given the fatal rudder issues, which Boeing tried to hide in a similar way as the -max saga. Second, the 717 is actually just a renamed DC-9, and DC-9’s (and the MD-80 series, which are also renamed DC-9’s) certainly have had hull losses and fatalities. They all share the same type certificate, so it’s a bit meaningless to slice out the accidental statistics of 717’s from the rest of the production. A major reason the 717 had so few accidents is that relatively few of them were sold as “717”s and the design was fairly mature and thoroughly debugged by the time they were marketed as 717’s.