First of all, it is useful to remind that; yes, some seat occupants may suffer less damage in a plane crash than others, but plane crashes are very, very rare, and a crashed plane usually has no survivors.
However, there are some studies on this subject. The data of the American Federal Aviation Administration and the joint work of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Wayne University in the USA years ago give an idea about this issue.
In order to understand this, dummy passengers were placed in various positions on a 170-seat passenger plane that was prepared to be shot down.
Some were seated with their seat belts on and their heads in their arms, some without seat belts but with their heads in their arms, and some without both seat belts and head protection.
After the pilots taking off the plane parachuted after a certain altitude, the plane was dropped into a desert in Mexico in a controlled manner.
The reason why this type of fall was particularly preferred was that 80% of the accidents were this way. The plane crashed at a speed of 225 km and broke apart in a short time. In the subsequent examinations, it was observed that the puppets sitting in which seat and in which position received less damage.
Even the puppets, who were wearing seat belts and protecting their heads with their arms, were found to have broken joints.
It was seen that puppets who wore seat belts but did not protect their heads received critical head injuries, while those who did not wear belts did not have a chance to survive.
The middle seats at the back of the plane have been found to be safer, meaning the farther you are from the cockpit, the better your chances of surviving. Those sitting in the first 11 seats in business class and those in the cockpit do not have a chance to escape. The accident reports of the last 35 years also support the result of this experiment.
Because the intensity of the crash towards the rear of the plane is getting worse. The severity of the impact is felt 9 times the force of gravity in the middle seats and 6 times as much in the rear seats.
Of course, this may vary depending on the type of accident and the type of aircraft.
In addition, it should not be forgotten that if there is an explosion or fire, the chance of survival will decrease considerably. In addition; If there is an accident where you need to get out of the plane urgently, it will be advantageous to be sitting in a seat close to the emergency exit door, you can get off earlier during the fight.
Frankly, the effort to choose the safest seat every time doesn’t make much sense, as the probability of planes crashing is very low. Moreover, if a plane crashes, the chance of survival is very low. Most airlines charge additional fees so that you can choose the seat you want. The decision is still yours…
If you say, “I’ll jump when the plane is about to hit the ground instead of sitting down,” we explained what would happen in such a situation in our content below:
Sources: 1, 2
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