accident rates per aircraft type - from Boeing
 

If you care to see a breakdown of major aircraft loss (data from 1954 - 2007), straight from Boeing - including many manufacturers....See chart on page 19 of the following PDF file.
http://www.boeing.com/news/techissues/pdf/statsum.pdf

Rates are high(above average) for the older Boeing Planes (737 (100,200), 747-pre 747-400), the Airbus 300/310, DC10/MD11

You've got to be kidding, aren't you?

I watched the video. That is the sound of the Hydraulic Power Transfer Unit on testing during engine startup or push back on all A320 aircraft. The sounds happen again when the plane prepares for arrival or when engines shutdown at arrival.

Airbus a/c are a bit scary to the extent that their operation is very complex relative to Boeing equipment.

How so?, is it because Airbus relies on fly-by wire technology similar to jet fighters and Boeing is "old-school" yoke controls, etc?

Newer Boeing aircraft will be fly-by-wire as well. The 777 is FBW, it just has a conventional yoke instead of sidestick. The 777 also has various flight envelope protections built in.

Boeing / Airbus both build their planes to such high standards that one is not significantly safer than the other. If a Boeing had crashed two weeks ago people would be wondering if Boeings were safe.

Also note that this is the first ever A330 commercial flight with fatalities. (There was one crash during testing too.) Other than these two crashes, there have been no other hull losses due to operation of the aircraft. (Two were destroyed by Tamils in Sri Lanka, and one was damaged beyond repair by an illegal acid shipment.) That's not exactly a bad record.

I think there are three basic factors about how safe a plane trip is.

1) Type of plane
2) Maintenance
3) Training of crew

In case of 1) all major aircraft manufactures build excellent and safe planes. A Boeing, Airbus, Embraer etc. is state of the art and thoroughly designed and tested.

Factor 2) and 3) are way more important. There is a reason why Europe has a black list of airlines which are not allowed to fly to Europe because of low maintenance standards and questionable crew training standards.