Odds are there are multiple aircraft flying the route. When I worked for AAI would pull up the routing of various planes. The planes will bounce all over the place. As I recall, AA flew the same configurations to Europe and South America. Planes sitting on the ground do not make money. Plane came in from Europe, gassed, cleaned stocked and it was on the next flight out whether Europe of SA. Every few landing cycles it was run in for a check, a few more cycles, a heavier check and about once a year or so (may be longer ... I do not remember) a full rebuild. The odds of catching the same plane on a route are pretty slim unless the carrier does not have many of that aircraft type.

not many aircraft types have had catastrophic failures due to design. Most were due to human error by either the crew or maint. I think the A300 that lost it's vertical stabilizer over NYC was a design error. The tail was not able to withstand the inputs from the pilot to correct for the turbulence as I recall. I remember there was a UA747 that lost a cargo door but landed safely. The AS S80 had the jack screw failure but that was human error I think....

Flying is far safer than any other mode of transportation, but just like with mass shootings, a plane going down is much more glamorous than 30+ thousand individual death on the roads every year.

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