When you book a flight, do you ever consider which seat might best protect you in case of an emergency? Probably not. Most people choose seats based on comfort, like extra legroom, or convenience, such as easy access to the restrooms. Frequent flyers often aim for seats as close to the front as possible to disembark quickly.
How safe is air travel?
Before diving into details, it’s important to emphasize that flying is the safest mode of transport. In 2019, there were just under 70 million flights worldwide and only 287 fatalities. According to a census data analysis by the National Safety Council in the US, your odds of dying in a plane crash are about 1 in 205,552, compared to 1 in 102 in a car accident. Yet we pay much less attention to fatal road accidents, and every time an ATR72 crashes in Nepal, it’s headline news everywhere. Our fascination with plane crashes perhaps stems from our wish to understand why they happen—and how likely they are to repeat. That’s not necessarily a bad thing: public concern ensures every tragedy is thoroughly investigated, contributing to air travel safety.
Choosing your seat
Almost nobody boards a flight hoping for a middle seat in the last row. But guess what? Statistically, those are the safest seats on a plane.
According to a TIME magazine investigation spanning 35 years of aviation accident data, middle seats in the rear of an aircraft have the lowest fatality rate: 28%, compared to 44% for aisle seats in the middle of the plane.
This makes logical sense too. Sitting near an emergency exit gives you the fastest way out, as long as there’s no fire on that side. However, since airplane wings store fuel, center exit rows aren’t the safest option.
Being closer to the front means you’d be impacted before those at the rear, which leads us to the back rows. As for why middle seats are safer than window or aisle spots, it’s because passengers at the sides serve as a protective buffer.
Some emergencies are worse than others
The type of emergency also affects your survival chances. Colliding with a mountain, as happened in a tragic 1979 disaster in New Zealand, drastically reduces survival odds. Air New Zealand flight TE901 crashed into the slopes of Mount Erebus in Antarctica, killing all 257 passengers and crew.
Nose-diving into water also lowers survival rates, as with the 2009 Air France Flight 447, when 228 people lost their lives.
Pilots are trained to minimize potential risks in emergencies. They’ll try to avoid hitting mountains and look for flat ground—like open fields—to land as safely as possible. Water landings require assessing wave conditions and aiming for a normal touchdown angle.
Airplanes are engineered to be robust in emergencies. In fact, cabin crew remind us to keep our seatbelts fastened more because of “clear-air turbulence” than the risk of a crash. This weather phenomenon can seriously injure passengers and damage aircraft at altitude.
Manufacturers now build planes with composite materials designed to withstand flight stresses. In modern designs, wings are made to flex and absorb extreme loads to avoid structural failure.
Does the type of aircraft matter?
Some variables, such as airspeed impact, can differ by aircraft. But flight physics are broadly consistent across all commercial planes. Generally, larger aircraft use more structural material, offering greater resistance to in-flight pressure and possibly extra protection in an emergency. But survival still depends largely on the situation.
That doesn’t mean you should book your next flight solely by plane size. As mentioned, air travel remains exceptionally safe.
Article by Doug Drury, Professor/Head of Aviation, CQUniversity Australia
