In the film Rain Man, Dustin Hoffman's character, the autistic savant Raymond, declares confidently that Qantas has "never crashed".

This is not true. Between 1927 and 1951, eight planes operated by Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services had fatal accidents, costing 62 lives. Half of these were during the second world war involving Qantas planes seconded to the Australian air force.

What is true is that the Australian carrier has never lost a jet plane in a major crash, and it has not had a fatal crash since 1951.

However, this jealously guarded reputation for safety has come under strain.

Qantas had a near-miss in Thailand. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty

In September 1999, Qantas Flight 1 overran the runway while landing at Bangkok airport during a heavy thunderstorm and ended up on a golf course. The airline paid a reported $100m to repair it, way above the value of the Boeing 747-400, apparently so it could preserve its "never lost a jet" status.

It was one of three incidents involving Qantas Boeing 747s within the space of eight months. A few weeks earlier, a pilot scraped an engine along the runway when he came in to land at Perth airport during heavy turbulence. Seven months later, a landing gear strut collapsed as a plane taxied for take-off at Rome airport.

There has been media scrutiny of Qantas's outsourced maintenance programme. A leaked audit carried out last year of the airline's maintenance contractor in Singapore raised questions about whether it was meeting its own safety standards and those of the civil aviation regulator.

Last month, according to the Age newspaper of Melbourne, a Qantas 737 returned from overseas maintenance with 60 defects.

The first loss of a jet carrying the airline's livery could be announced soon. In February, a heavy landing by a Qantaslink Boeing 717 at Nhulunbuy airport in the Northern Territory wrinkled the airliner's skin and may have damaged its frame. The huge cost of repair is expected to leave it a write-off, taking with it the airline's right to say it "we have never lost a jet in a crash".