Where to board a plane to survive a plane crash

Are there “safe” places on an airplane where you can survive a possible crash, when “every second counts”? Expert recommendations.

Over the last week of last year, two large-scale plane crashes occurred: on December 25, a Azerbaijan Airlines planewhich killed 38 passengers and crashed on December 29 South Korean Jeju Air planebecause of which the lives of 179 people were cut short.

In both cases, however, there were survivors. In the first there were 29 people – they were in the back of the plane that split into two parts. In the second there were only two flight attendants who were in the tail compartment.

Is there a connection between where you sit on an airplane and your chance of survival during a crash, and what can help you survive? told on CNN, citing experts' arguments.

In 2015, TIME journalists analyzed records of all plane crashes in the United States from 1985 to 2000. They discovered that Seats in the rear third of the aircraft accounted for 32% of fatalities, while seats in the forward third accounted for 38% and in the middle third 39%.

The safest places were the middle seats in the rear third of the cabin, where the mortality rate was 28%. The worst seats were in the aisles in the middle third of the plane – 44%. However, according to experts, these are “old tales.” Hassan Shahidi, President of the Aviation Safety Foundation, says:

“There is no data that shows a correlation between location and survival. Every accident is different.”

Cheng-Lung Wu, Associate Professor at the School of Aviation at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, in turn assures:

“If we're talking about a fatal accident, it makes almost no difference where you sit.”

According to Ed Galea, a professor of fire safety engineering at the University of London Greenwich, who has conducted research on the evacuation of passengers during air crashes, “there is no magic safe place.”

That is The chances of survival depend on the nature of the accident – sometimes it is better to sit in the front, sometimes in the back. However, he says there is a difference between a seat that has best chance of surviving the blowand the seat, allowing you to quickly leave the plane. And people should pay attention to the latter option.

At the same time, the founder of the first website that ranks airlines by safety level, AirlineRatings, Jeffrey Thomas says that the safest part of the aircraft is where the wing structure connects to the fuselage:

“Every plane crash is different, but typically when there is a structural failure, the plane breaks down at the front and back of the wings.”

But passenger behavior in recent years has forced him to rethink his conclusions. Thomas now believes that “the best seats should be as close to the exits as possible”. Ideally, this is an airplane wing, but not necessarily.

Ed Galea says that most passengers in plane crashes survive. Since 1988, airplanes and their seats must be designed to withstand impacts of up to 16G—a force 16 times greater than gravity. This allows you to survive the injury from a bruise in most cases.

The expert classifies the Jeju Air disaster as one that can be survived – we are talking about a possible collision with a bird, loss of an engine and landing on a runway without working landing gear:

“Had the aircraft not crashed into the reinforced concrete barrier at the end of the runway, it is possible that most, if not all, would have survived.”

At the same time, he calls survival in the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane a “miracle,” because the disaster was atypical. In particular, President Ilham Aliyev claims that the plane was fired upon by the Russians.

According to Galea, during the crash what matters is how quickly passengers can evacuate. He carried out research for the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), studying aircraft seats. In one of them, Galea studied the behavior of passengers and crew during evacuation after a plane crash. By studying 105 plane crashes from 1977 to 1999, his team created a database of human behavior.

It turned out that passengers seated within five rows of any emergency exit in any part of the aircraft are most likely to survive. The chances of safe evacuation are highest for those sitting in the aisle, and the lowest for passengers near the window. Ed Galea noted:

“The key thing to understand is that in a plane crash, every second counts.”

He says that It’s better to choose a row close to one of the exits than to sit between two. And pays attention to what you should and shouldn’t do on the plane. Galea says that very important:

1. Listen to the pre-flight briefing from the flight attendants and understand how the seat belt works. After all, most people have difficulty with it. When there is turbulence, you should always wear your seat belt.
2. Study the evacuation maps in your seat pocket.
3. Sitting at the emergency exit, it is worth looking at how to open it.
4. Do not remove your shoes until the plane reaches altitude. When he begins to descend, you need to put on your shoes again.
5. When traveling with your family, it is better to sit down together so as not to waste time looking for each other.
6. You should always count the number of rows between you and the emergency exit – both in front and behind. If the aircraft cabin fills with smoke, it will still be possible to find a way to the nearest and emergency exit if the first one is blocked.
7. Do not block the passage with hand luggage, as this may slow down the evacuation.

Main: You should carefully choose an airline and pay attention to whether it meets safety standards.

And, despite the seriousness of the topic, smile:

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