Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Safest Seat on a Plane, Or How to Survive a Crash

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the law-of-averages dept.

Ant writes "Popular Mechanics shares a short article on an exclusive look at 36 years' worth of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reports and seating charts to determine the best way to live through a disaster in the sky. Move to the back of the Airbus."

18 of 454 comments (clear)

  1. It's safer in the back and... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    you're by the bathrooms and you can watch any hottie walk back to her seat.

    1. Re:It's safer in the back and... by kharchenko · · Score: 5, Funny

      here's an obligatory feedback on the seat you're suggesting :)

  2. If there's one bit of mysticism I believe.. by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Insightful

    it's that if your time has come there's nothing you can do.

    Which is good, cause it fits in nicely with a bit of wisdom that a lot of people should take to heart:

    don't worry about stuff you have no control over.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
    1. Re:If there's one bit of mysticism I believe.. by Deadstick · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, well, if your airplane gets in trouble you'd better hope the pilot doesn't believe that.

      rj

  3. Sit in the rear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Rarely does an airplane back into the side of a mountain.

    1. Re:Sit in the rear by kryten_nl · · Score: 5, Funny

      Rarely does an airplane back into the side of a mountain. Because the mountains move aside when they hear that beeping sound and see the flashing lights?
      --
      For the perfect anti-Unix, write an OS that thinks it knows what you're doing better than you do and let it be wrong.
  4. What are the odds? by slughead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The odds of dying in a plane crash are 1 in 5,051 in your whole lifetime. To give you some perspective, you're 5 times more likely to drown, 23 times more likely to fall to your death, and 60 times more likely to die in a car accident.

    Therefore, a far more useful article would be "How to survive driving off a seaside cliff into the ocean."

    --
    Latewire
    1. Re:What are the odds? by nerdonamotorcycle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Indeed. You're way more likely to die as a result of the cab ride to the airport.

    2. Re:What are the odds? by dkleinsc · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I tend to view the issue with plane crashes (and terrorism, which is even more ridiculously unlikely) is the loss of control. With cars, if you're driving, you feel like you're in control of the vehicle, and by extension the situation, and thus feel safer. Even if you have a friend driving, you now have someone you (probably) trust in control of the situation.

      By contrast, in a plane, you're totally at the mercy of the pilots and air traffic controllers. You don't know them, and you know that if they screw up there's pretty close to nothing you can do about it. So even if the risk is actually less, it appears to be greater, because you are giving up control over whether you live or die.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    3. Re:What are the odds? by Dunbal · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Aortic dissection. This is what kills you. It's the most common, lethal deceleration injury. Of course if you're going fast enough you're simply crushed, but at "lower" speeds a sudden deceleration is enough to rotate the heart (which is fairly mobile in the chest) and rip it off the aorta (which is fixed to the posterior chest wall). The arteriovenous ligament doesn't help, either. So the aorta ruptures and you die of a cardiac tamponade. Oh and this is how Princess Diana died.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    4. Re:What are the odds? by joseph449008 · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, I think it has to do with crashing down from about an altitude of 30,000 feet.

    5. Re:What are the odds? by dal20402 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There are no parachutes on airliners for the following reasons:

      1. Parachutes are heavy, so a plane equipped with them could carry less cargo or passengers and ticket prices would go up.

      2. Parachutes are very complex to pack, and would have to be unpacked, inspected, and repacked at regular maintenance intervals, at considerable expense (not to mention increased time out of service for the plane).

      3. If the plane is high enough that parachutes will be of any use, it's impossible to open most exit doors as pressure seals them against the inside of the fuselage.

      4. Only a tiny fraction of passengers would understand how to use parachutes. When all the others slam into the ground at terminal velocity -- especially if the plane somehow survives -- it's a brave new world of stupendously huge liability for the airline.

  5. Reminds me of... by rundstykke · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..an entertaining read I bumped into a couple of months back, describing how to survive a freefall from 35'000 feet...

    http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/carkeet.html


    /Rundstykke

  6. Worry about something else by Kohath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you're really worried about a plane crash, I suggest staying home. Maybe don't get out of bed at all.

    Watching and reading the news is your real problem. Things that happen on the news are extremely unlikely to happen to you. That's why you never see headlines like "Jill Larson Goes to the Market. Buys Coffee. (Subtitle: Coffee purchase exceeds analysts' expectations by 100%)"

    That's all. I have to go to the market. But I'm not buying coffee, so no commercial airliners will crash today.

  7. BBC already did this... by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Informative

    The BBC did a documentary on this...and...

    The best place is "near an exit door".

    Statistically, most crashes are survivable if you can get out. The biggest impediment to getting out is the number of other people between you and the door. The ones who don't get out die of smoke/fire.

    --
    No sig today...
  8. Not on Oceanic 815... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... where all but one of the survivors from the tail section so far as been kidnapped or murdered.

  9. Excuse me... by AsmCoder8088 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The raw data from these 20 accidents has been languishing for decades in National Transportation Safety Board files, waiting to be analyzed by anyone curious enough to look and willing to do the statistical drudgework.

    So, they are working off of a sample size of twenty??? Not sure if I would draw too many conclusions from this dataset.

  10. Don't sit in the back! by Per+Wigren · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's where the snakes are!

    --
    My other account has a 3-digit UID.