What you need to know about surviving airplane crashes

Eighteen minutes into the flight of Southwest 812, a five-foot-long hole opened, causing the cabin to lose pressure and make an emergency landing. Some of the 118 passengers aboard the Boeing 737-300 said the incident was “terrifying” as they saw the sun shining through the cabin.
 

Days later, hundreds of flights have been cancelled as Southwest planes have been checked, and the investigation continues as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says it has issued an “emergency directive” to inspect about 175 older Boeing’s 737’s for wear and tear.
 

All this may raise a question in the public’s mind about safety in the sky.
 

The short answer: Life has many risks but when it comes to getting where you are going, air travel is safer than anything else.
 

There are many reasons to prove it.
 

The National Transportation Safety Board’s statistics for major commercial aircraft accidents involving fatalities show a steady decrease from the early 1990s, despite a 50 percent increase in aircraft hours flown.
 

More Americans die each year falling from ladders, drowning in bathtubs and freezing to death than by flying.
 

It is often reported that air travel is the safest in terms of deaths per passenger mile. Odds summarized in the journal NATURE give the following lifetime odds of dying of these causes: 1:90 for motor vehicle accident, 1:9,000 for drowning, 1:30,000 for an airplane crash (and these include not just scheduled airlines).
 

MIT professor Arnold Barnett, a statistical expert in the field of aviation safety, says you would have to fly every day for 19,000 years before encountering a fatal accident.
 

There should be no real fear of flying but up to 30 million Americans describe themselves as “anxious flyers.”
 

“In view of the statistics, it is irrational to fear flying a significant distance, if you are willing to drive that same distance without such trepidations, because your risk of injury or death is 10 to 40 times greater in an automobile than in an airliner, in the safer areas of the world,” says AirlineSafety.com.
 

If you’re really worried about being killed in an airline crash, be sure your seat belt is fastened when your plane takes off or lands. Most crashes come during that time frame.
 

Also be sure to be knowledgable about your life jacket. For water fatalities during a crash, a huge majority of those not wearing life jackets, or 80 percent, were casualties.
 

Also, avoid Alaska. A disproportionate number of all US aircraft crashes occur in that state. Why? Largely because of severe weather conditions
 

How about where you sit? Does it matter and is it really safer in the back?
Yes, the further back you sit, the better your odds of surviving if there’s a real crash. Passengers near the tail of a plane are about 40 percent more likely to survive a crash than those in the first few rows up front, according to various studies that include Popular Mechanics.
 

”It’s safer in the back,” the magazine concluded. “In 11 of the 20 crashes, rear passengers clearly fared better. Only five accidents favored those sitting forward.”
 

So if worse comes to worse, how else do you survive an airline crash?
 

For one thing, be aware that most crashes are not fatal. A television executive, Ben Sherwood, wrote a book called “The Survivors Club: The Secrets and Science That Could Save Your Life.”
 

“People think that all plane crashes are fatal,” he said. But even in crashes, there are very high survival rates — often 100 percent of passengers.
 

“People assume, in an airplane crash, that there’s pandemonium and people panic. But in fact, according to research done after earthquakes and natural disasters and airplane crashes, panic behavior rarely happens,” he said.
 

He advises if you worry to pay attention to the safety notices and briefings because every plane is different. Make sure your life jacket is actually there, for example. Also, don’t take your shoes off — in case you need to run through a burning plane, you will need them.
 

Also, stay sober. Pay attention.
 

Actually, as a human, you may be even safer than dogs, particularly if you’re short-snouted. They accounted for roughly half the purebred dog deaths on airplanes in the past five years, according to US Transportation Department data.
The AP says at least 122 dog deaths have been reported since the DOT required airlines to start making that information public beginning in May 2005.
 

PS: There were no serious injuries on Southwest flight 812 though one flight attendant received minor injuries, according to reports.
 

Southwest advises would-be passengers to check flights but one remaining question is how the incidents will impact the thriving airline. Some commentators said the airline’s scheduling problem may be leading to maintenance shortcuts.
 

By David Wilkening