Why your chances of surviving an airline crash are over 90 percent
Airline news this week was dominated by the passenger-thwarted Christmas Day attack in Detroit but as recent events show, crashes under natural conditions are more survivable than ever, according to safety experts.
”The aviation industry has made enormous improvements in aircraft safety over the past 20 years,” says CBS news correspondent Kelly Cobiella.
So much so that most crashes are survivable.
"Many people still think that if you have an accident you’re going to die," said aviation expert John Goglia. "But the fact is that 90 to 95 percent of the people involved in accidents today survive."
“Flying on a large commercial aircraft still remains one of the safest forms of transportation, and statistics suggest it has gotten even safer in recent years,” according to Science Life.
The lifetime odds of dying of heart disease are 1-in-5, while those of dying in an auto accident are 1-in-100. The odds of dying in an air travel accident are 1-in-20,000.
The reasons for accident reductions are many and varied, according to National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson. They include better training of crews and improved air traffic control.
Some recent life-saving changes are simple ones. For example:
 The wall that separates first class from coach is now 25-30 inches farther from the seats so passengers won’t be thrown against it in a sudden stop.
 Cabin floors have been made stronger where the seats attach.
 Seat tracks have been strengthened with steel or aluminum, making it more likely they’ll stay in place in a crash.
 Door handles on emergency exits are easier to use, and evacuation slides now deploy automatically when the door opens.
 ”Ground proximity warning systems are so much better that it’s almost impossible for a pilot to fly a plane unknowingly into the ground,” says CBS.
 And aircraft bellies are now designed to absorb the force of a crash…which helped protect passengers when a US Airways plane landed in the Hudson River.
By David Wilkening
David
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