Get out of the cabin as fast as you can and as far from the plane as possible. If the nearest exit is behind you and accessible, ignore the human propensity to move forward rather than backward and move to the rearward exit. Assess the exit for safety – look out the window to see if there are any hazards present.
Best seats to survive a plane crash
Doug Drury, a professor at Central Queensland University, analyzed several flights that involved crashes and fatalities and came up with answers. It turns out that the aisle seats at the back of the plane are the safest, with an average 28% fatality rate if the plane crashes.
However, statistically speaking, a seat close to an exit in the front or rear, or a middle seat in the back third of the plane offers the lowest fatality rate.
In the middle, at the back
Nonetheless, a TIME investigation that looked at 35 years of aircraft accident data found the middle rear seats of an aircraft had the lowest fatality rate: 28%, compared with 44% for the middle aisle seats. This logically makes sense too.
Many aviation accidents are caused when pilots misread flight equipment, misjudge weather conditions or fail to properly address mechanical errors. Pilot error is considered the number one reason why planes crash.
Plane crashes are extremely rare. The odds of dying in a plane are about 1 in 205,552. If you want to feel safer, some seats that have a better track record during crashes than others. Data from past crashes and crash tests show that the back of the plane is probably the safest.
Airplane accidents are 95% survivable. Here are seven ways to increase those odds even more.
But according to aviation experts, you probably won't even hear a peep from a pilot if you're seconds away from disaster. That's because there usually isn't enough time in those crucial moments to alert both the crew and passengers that there's a bit of a problem.
The good news is that an airplane crash doesn't necessarily mean certain death. In fact, of the 568 U.S. plane crashes between 1980 and 2000, more than 90 percent of crash victims survived [source: BBC]. In the event of an air disaster, there are things you can do that can increase your odds of living.
March 21, 2022: A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane crashed in the mountains of Guangxi near Guangzhou, China, leading to the tragic loss of all 133 people on board.
The odds of dying in a plane crash are about one in 11 million, but the chances of surviving depend on your seating choice.
Plane Crashes That Have Taken Place in 2023 So Far
Yeti Airlines Flight 691: an ATR 72-500 aircraft operating a domestic flight from Tribhuvan International Airport to Pokhara International Airport in Nepal crashed into the gorge of the Seti Gandaki River, resulting in the loss of all 72 individuals on board.
There are 1,622 plane crashes per year, which comes out to be: 4.4 planes crash per day. 31.1 planes crash per week. 133.3 planes crash per month.
Running since 1929, Hawaiian is among the oldest airlines in the world but, remarkably, it has never suffered a single fatal crash or hull loss.
Severe turbulence can cause a plane to drop so suddenly that pilots temporarily lose control. But, again, that's not enough to crash the plane. That's not to say it's never happened. In 1966, human error and turbulence combined to bring a plane down over Mount Fuji.
American Airlines is at the top of the list, with 11 accidents, which caused 858 fatalities. Two of these accidents came directly from the 9/11 attacks in September 2001. Because of the 11 accidents, this makes them joint top with Air France for the airline with the most crashes in the world with 11 accidents apiece.
If anything goes wrong, the likely result is a runway accident, which can have deadly consequences. According to a study published by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, nearly half of all aviation accidents occur during the final approach or landing and 14 percent occur during takeoff or initial climb.
Are small planes less safe than larger? It might seem that way, but there are other contributing factors. "In a nutshell, the size of an airplane is not in any way linked to safety," explains Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at StretegivAero Research.
The top 10 countries with the highest number of fatal civil airliner accidents from 1945 to 2021 are the United States, Russia, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, United Kingdom, France, Indonesia, Mexico, and India.