When you book a flight, do you wonder which seat will protect you the most in case of an emergency? Probably not.
Most people reserve seats for comfort, such as legroom, convenience, or easy access to toilets. Frequent fliers (including me) sometimes reserve their seats as close to the front of the plane as possible in order to be able to disembark more quickly.
We rarely book a flight hoping to get one of the middle seats in the last row. well guess what? These seats are statistically the safest on an airplane.
air travel is safe
Before getting to the bottom of the matter, I would like to remind you that air transport is the safest mode of transport. In 2022, there were only 70 million flights worldwide, with only 174 deaths.
The odds of dying on an airplane are about 1 in 205,552, compared to 1 in 102 in a car, according to an analysis of census data by the US National Security Council. Despite this, we pay little attention to road accidents, but when we hear about a plane crash, it is front page news.
Our interest in plane crashes may be rooted in our desire to understand why they happen, or how likely they are to happen again. And that may not be a bad thing: Our interest in helping to ensure that these tragic incidents are thoroughly investigated contributes to the safety of air travel.
There really is no need to worry about security when flying a commercial flight. But if you still have that question, driven by pure curiosity, read on.
It is worth remembering that accidents, by their very nature, do not conform to the norm. When United Flight 232 crashed in Sioux City, Iowa in 1989, 184 of the 269 people aboard survived the crash. Most of the survivors were seated towards the front of the plane, in the back of first class.
Nevertheless, a survey by the American magazine Time that examined 35 years of aircraft accident data found that the middle back seats of an airplane had the lowest fatality rate: 28 percent, compared to 44 for central aisle seats. compared to percentage.
This is also logical. Sitting in a row next to an exit will always give you the fastest exit in an emergency, provided there is no fire on that side. But fuel accumulates in the wings of an airplane, which disqualifies center-facing rows as the safest row option.
At the same time, being closer to the front means that you will be hit before the rear ones, and we will be left in the last line, which calculates the exit. As for middle seats are safer than window or aisle seats, as you might expect, because of the buffer of people on each side.
Some accidents are worse than others
The type of accident will also determine survival. Hitting a mountain will reduce the chances of survival exponentially, as happened in a tragic 1979 disaster in New Zealand. Air New Zealand flight TE901 crashed into the slopes of Mount Erebus in Antarctica, killing all 257 passengers and crew.
Further sea landings also reduce the chances of survival, as shown by the 2009 Air France Flight 447, which killed 228 passengers and crew.
Pilots are trained to minimize potential risks in an emergency. They will try to avoid hitting mountains and look for a flat place like an open field to land as normally as possible. Water landing technique involves assessing surface conditions and attempting to land among the waves at a normal landing angle.
Airplanes are designed to be very robust in emergency situations. In fact, the main reason cabin crew remind us to fasten our seat belts is not the risk of being crushed, but the "clear air turbulence" that can be encountered at high altitude. It is the meteorological phenomenon that can cause the most damage to passengers and aircraft.
Manufacturers are designing new aircraft with more composite materials that can withstand the stresses during flight. In these designs, the wings are not rigid and can flex to absorb excessive loads to prevent structural failure.
Does the type of aircraft matter?
It is true that some variables, such as the effects of speed, can vary slightly from one type of aircraft to another. However, the physics of flight are more or less the same for all aircraft.
In general, larger aircraft have more structural material and therefore greater strength to withstand pressure at altitude. This means they can provide additional protection in an emergency, but again it depends on the severity of the emergency.
This doesn't mean you have to book your next flight on the biggest airline you can find. As I mentioned, air travel is very safe.
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