Do you prefer the aisle or the window? Back or front? An aviation expert has analyzed which seat on the plane is the safest.
Most holidaymakers and business travelers book seats for comfort such as legroom, convenience or easy access to toilets. Frequent flyers usually book their seat as far forward as possible so that they can disembark faster.
According to the aviation experts Doug Drury of CQUniversity Australia rarely books travelers hoping to snag a middle back row seat. But statistically, these seats are the safest on an airplane, according to an analysis in the academic journal “The Conversationwrites.
Traveling by plane: book middle rear seats
According to the expert, a study that looked at 35 years of plane crash data found that the middle rear seats of an airplane were the lowest death rate 28 percent, compared to 44 percent for the center aisle seats. Despite this, middle seats are safer than window or aisle seats. The latter is simply due to the buffer created by the presence of people on either side.
Sitting next to you Exit, so you can evacuate the plane more quickly in an emergency, provided there is no fire on that side. However, an airplane’s wings store fuel, so center exit rows are disqualified as the safest row option, for example.
Basically run accidents according to the expert, however, does not necessarily depend on these rules. In his article, the expert referred to the 1989 crash of United Flight 232 in Sioux City, Iowa. At that time, 184 of the 269 people on board survived. However, most of the survivors sat behind first class in the front part of the aircraft. From a purely statistical point of view, they would have had significantly fewer chances there.
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Airplane is the safest means of transport
Basically – and the flight expert also points this out – airplanes are the safest means of transport. In 2019 there were almost 70 million flights worldwide with only 287 fatalities. According to an analysis by the US National Safety Council, the odds of dying on an airplane are about 1 in 205,552, compared to 1 in 102 in a car.
“Nevertheless, we give deadly ones traffic accidents little attention,” Drury wrote. “But when we hear about an ATR72 crash in Nepal, it’s the headline on every news site.”
That interest in plane crashes is so large, the expert says, could be because people want to understand why accidents happened or the likelihood of them happening again. “Our concern ensures that these tragic incidents are thoroughly investigated, which helps keep air travel safe,” Drury said.
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Particularly dangerous: accidents in mountains and over water
If, despite the high level of safety in air traffic, an emergency does occur, some accidents are worse than others. “When you get into a Mountain crashes, the chances of survival drop exponentially, as happened in a tragic 1979 disaster in New Zealand,” the aviation expert wrote.
Air New Zealand flight TE901 crashed into the slopes of Mount Erebus, Antarctica, killing all 257 passengers and crew. The landing in the ocean being nose first also reduces the chances of survival, as illustrated by Air France Flight 447 in 2009, which killed all 228 passengers and crew.
“pilots are trained to minimize the potential risk in an emergency as much as possible,” explained Drury. They would try to avoid hitting mountains and seek a level place, such as an open field, to land as normally as possible. Landing in water, on the other hand, requires assessing surface conditions and pilots must attempt to land between the waves at a normal landing angle.
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Bigger planes are safer
According to Drury, aircraft are designed to be very robust for emergency situations. You have to put on your seat belts mainly because at high altitudes at all times “air turbulence’ can occur, which could injure passengers and staff.
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The aircraft type doesn’t matter too much: “Generally, larger aircraft have more structural material and therefore more strength to withstand the pressure at altitude,” explained Drury. The latter means that they can offer some additional protection in an emergency. Again, this would depend heavily on the severity of the emergency.
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