This document presents the conclusions of an analysis conducted on more than 700 French accidents, extracted from the ARIA database, involving ageing. If corrosion is the first cause underlying accidents, fatigue is another recurrent one. Recurrent failures leading to corrosion are inappropriate technical choices, insufficient maintenance or human errors. Besides property damage and operating losses generated by an eventual accident, structural ageing represents a sizeable cost for industry. Taking preventive action serves to extend installation life cycle and to limit the occurrence of potentially catastrophic accidents. Placing emphasis on this thematic is key.
