Where is the safest seats on plane?

[goofydad621]

I almost wet myself on that one laughing.

Thanks for the chuckle

A plane sliding off the runway is one thing, an incident at 35,000 feet is another. There are no fender benders for the Mile High Club. Past a certain altitude if there's a problem, I'm resigned to going into the ground like a lawn dart and the only purpose for the seat belt is to make it easy for the FAA to identify my remains by the seating chart.

Bill From PA

 

[drogerstn]

The joke's on Villanova University ... in addition to the tuition scholarship, they paid me the prince-like stipend of $600 per month to run research, do gopher-work, and teach the occasional lecture.

I should have known since I was also paid to go to school.

Notice I never mentioned "general aviation" in my post.

Notice I acknowledged this in my earlier post....okay, now we may be in an endless loop

Commercial airline travel, especially on jet aircraft, has a very good safety record and has continually improved over the years. The problem is, when a big jet crashes, it's big news; perception among the general public gets clouded by this.

 

[NotUrsula]

NotUrsula, I think by "safe seats" it's meant are there locations on the aircraft that are more survivable than others in the event of a serious crash.

Oh, I realized that, and my original answer was "one near the exit."

Personally, I would say that the Toronto accident last year was pretty serious. No one died, thank Heaven, but the entire plane and everything still on it was consumed by flames in a matter of minutes. The plane doesn't have to fall thousands of feet for a crash to be serious. See: http://www.airsafe.com/ for several examples.

I'm not a paranoid flyer in the least, but I'm not fatalistic about air safety, either. In most situations where there is an emergency on a plane, paying attention and following the posted safety procedures *will* greatly reduce your chances of getting seriously hurt. I just really hate it when people act like there is no point to paying attention to the emergency procedures information because "nothing would save us anyway."

 

[ferris198]

Actually the incident in Toronto last summer was eventually deemed to be pilot error, as he attempted the landing during a very bad storm, and overshot the runway.

 

[NotUrsula]

You're right Ferris; I just checked the final report. It looks like the fire in Toronto did severely damage brake #1, but no cause is pinpointed for the fire, which many witnesses say was present before the plane stopped. The gear did not malfunction or cause the slide or the fire, and I apologize for mis-stating that.

Regardless of the reason the accident happened, Air France 358 is still a really good example of why it pays to listen to the evacuation instructions and locate the exits before you have to. It was a big bad crash that no one on board anticipated, yet no one died, because the FA's did their jobs and herded 309 people off of that plane in less than 2 minutes, even though only 4 of the 8 exits were usable.