I used to work at McDonnell Douglas, and we had quite a few pilots as consultants. They were all military, or former military pilots. One used to be fond of saying that there are around 10 things that have to happen at the same time for a crash to occur. Any time a plane is in the air, 2 or 3 of those things are already happening...

The military, when designing transport aircraft, consider a survivable crash one in which the plane goes from 150 to 0 in a quarter of a second. Yes, you read that right. That's why military planes make everyone sit facing the rear for good back support and load distribution in a sudden stop.