Armchair Traveller

Posted: 8 months ago by Bink Baulch

Rated: |

Airline crash test suggests economy seats are safest

Next time you're angling for an upgrade to business or first class, bear in mind you might be better off back in coach.

A safety study has suggested that passengers seated in economy class often have a greater chance of surviving an accident.

An ageing Boeing 727 was deliberately crashed in the Mexican desert as part of a documentary about air safety airing in Britain next month.

The pilot parachuted out at 800 metres and the jet was then guided by remote control until it crashed.

The first 11 rows of seats were ripped out as the nose of the plane buckled when it hit the ground. This is the area where first and business class passengers would normally be seated.

Experts estimated that nobody would have survived in the front section of the plane, but 78 percent of the remaining passengers would have lived. The further back they were seated, the greater their chance of survival.

Anne Evans, a former investigator at the UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch said, "It is safer to sit at the back of the aircraft where the flight recorder is. The front is more vulnerable because that often sees higher impact forces.

Suggesting the safest seat to choose on a plane, she advised, "I would pick somewhere which is comfortable and within a few rows of an emergency exit."

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User comments

So this test has shown that what we've all known for years is actually true. Because all the other tests also showed this over the years. Wow....

Well the old adage has always been " I've never seen one back into a mountain yet" seems to have been proved by modern science once again!

Which goes to prove that planes never back into the mountian.

I have always joked with my mates about being "in the back of economy class" Saying " its the last place where the plane hits the ground in a crash " so I am more likely to survive. And as the article says, I could well still be able to laugh after a plane crash, maybe!

I have always said the rear of the plane is the safest,as you never see a plane reversing into a mountain

The next thing we know, airlines will be selling First and Business Class tickets towards the back of the plane.

does this mean that new designs of airplanes first and business class will move at the back of the airplane. Poor us who can't afford the luxury of first and business class ticket.

As a retired Air Force SNCO I have always told my friends that the safest part of the Aircraft, is the area where the wings attach. It's also the strongest part of the aircraft. Of course they have to weigh up the risk of the fuel in the wings causing a massive fire so in general terms it doesn't really make much difference where you sit. It just comes down to when your number is up.

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