I happen to be a Boeing fan, but nonetheless I would point out that the 727 had 3 major hull losses in the first 6 months of service. In each case, the accident was deemed pilot error or unknown. All of the accidents involved flying what appeared to be a perfectly good aircraft into the ground. The non-official semi-consensus (how's that for a weasel phrase) amongst pilots is that the high sink rate and long engine spoolup time contributed to the accidents. In any case, improved training and disciple to "fly by the numbers" seemed to resolve the problem.
I believe there is some parallel between the early 727 crashes and the early Airbus crashes and that they probably revolve around pilot training and procedures.