Equipped To Survive Equipped To Survive® Presents
The Survival Forum
Where do you want to go on ETS?

Topic Options
#100385 - 07/21/07 04:43 PM Article: Surviving airliner crashes
jmarkantes Offline
Member

Registered: 05/02/05
Posts: 138
Loc: Portland, OR, USA
Here's a Popular Science Article on the Safest Seat in a crash. I've heard the back seats are safest, but this article goes through a row by row probability based on crashes for the last 30 years or so.

Handy dandy colored seating chart included. smile "Sit here to maybe not die. Sit here for free booze and go out in style!"

J

Top
#100406 - 07/22/07 12:42 AM Re: Article: Surviving airliner crashes [Re: jmarkantes]
OldBaldGuy Offline
Geezer

Registered: 09/30/01
Posts: 5695
Loc: Former AFB in CA, recouping fr...
I was watching Mythbusters the other morning (I like to start my day off with a chuckle), and they were doing a thing on airliner crashes. They got some official airliner seats, mounted them on a gizmo that would smash them into the ground at the FAA official ft per second speed. Put a bunch of dummies in the seats, one a super dummy, equipped with a declerations meter, etc. They "crashed" first class section seats, economy seats, and a rear facing flight attendant seat, complete with its over the shoulder harness, etc. What they found was lotsa broken bones, but few fatals. Best place to sit? In the flight attendants seat. Fat chance of that. And luckily there was no fire involved in their tests, or post impact rolls, flips, etc.

Another day they tested the myth of a "large" woman getting stuck on a toilet seat for the entire flight, thanks to the vacuum toilet. What a hoot that test was...
_________________________
OBG

Top
#100415 - 07/22/07 02:59 AM Re: Article: Surviving airliner crashes [Re: jmarkantes]
JCWohlschlag Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 11/26/06
Posts: 724
Loc: Sterling, Virginia, United Sta...
Heh, looks like first-class equals first-to-die! I wonder what the pilots' seats percentages are.
_________________________
“Hiking is just walking where it’s okay to pee. Sometimes old people hike by mistake.” — Demitri Martin

Top
#100416 - 07/22/07 03:00 AM Re: Article: Surviving airliner crashes [Re: OldBaldGuy]
JCWohlschlag Offline
Old Hand

Registered: 11/26/06
Posts: 724
Loc: Sterling, Virginia, United Sta...
The explosive decompression episode was quite awesome, as well!
_________________________
“Hiking is just walking where it’s okay to pee. Sometimes old people hike by mistake.” — Demitri Martin

Top
#100436 - 07/22/07 01:58 PM Re: Article: Surviving airliner crashes [Re: JCWohlschlag]
OldBaldGuy Offline
Geezer

Registered: 09/30/01
Posts: 5695
Loc: Former AFB in CA, recouping fr...
A lot of their stuff in interesting, informative, and almost always entertaining...
_________________________
OBG

Top
#100438 - 07/22/07 02:03 PM Re: Article: Surviving airliner crashes [Re: jmarkantes]
BOD Offline
Newbie

Registered: 07/17/07
Posts: 33
Loc: paleotropics
Does anyone know what the latest statistics are for survivabilty in crashlandings by age and sex?

I did some readins on this in the 70s and the highest survival rate was male teenagers and early 20s males.

I wonder if it remains true today
_________________________
Optimism isn't a plan

Top
#100455 - 07/22/07 03:18 PM Re: Article: Surviving airliner crashes [Re: OldBaldGuy]
jshannon Offline
Addict

Registered: 02/02/03
Posts: 647
Loc: North Texas
Mythbusters wasn't taking into account internal injuries (blunt force trauma) which are likely the major killers, not broken bones. Plane crashes are notorious for causing aortic tears and other internal damage on impact.

Top
#100457 - 07/22/07 03:39 PM Re: Article: Surviving airliner crashes [Re: jshannon]
OldBaldGuy Offline
Geezer

Registered: 09/30/01
Posts: 5695
Loc: Former AFB in CA, recouping fr...
True. I guess you can only simulate so much...
_________________________
OBG

Top
#100458 - 07/22/07 05:31 PM Re: Article: Surviving airliner crashes [Re: jshannon]
Arney Offline
Pooh-Bah

Registered: 09/15/05
Posts: 2485
Loc: California
Originally Posted By: jshannon
Mythbusters wasn't taking into account internal injuries (blunt force trauma)...

G-force cut-offs that are used in crash test evaluations do attempt to take soft tissue injuries into account, but you're right that they don't attempt to directly simulate soft tissue injuries. I don't believe that the official FAA tests do any better than what the Mythbusters did. Neither do auto crash tests done by NHTSA or the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. They all rely primarily on force and load measurements in evaluating survival probabilities.

Top
#100476 - 07/23/07 12:41 AM Re: Article: Surviving airliner crashes [Re: Arney]
OldBaldGuy Offline
Geezer

Registered: 09/30/01
Posts: 5695
Loc: Former AFB in CA, recouping fr...
"...They all rely primarily on force and load measurements in evaluating survival probabilities...:

Yup. In over thirty years of investigating auto crashes, I saw collisions where a vehicle sustained total (as in really really bad) damage, yet the occupants walked away with very minor injuries. And I saw minor damage collisions where someone in the vehicle died. Maybe the old "when your number is up..." theory is correct...
_________________________
OBG

Top



Moderator:  Alan_Romania, Blast, cliff, Hikin_Jim 
March
Su M Tu W Th F Sa
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
Who's Online
0 registered (), 269 Guests and 21 Spiders online.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Newest Members
GallenR, Jeebo, NicholasMarshall, Yadav, BenFoakes
5367 Registered Users
Newest Posts
What did you do today to prepare?
by dougwalkabout
Yesterday at 11:21 PM
Zippo Butane Inserts
by dougwalkabout
Yesterday at 11:11 PM
Question about a "Backyard Mutitool"
by Ren
03/17/24 01:00 AM
Problem in my WhatsApp configuration
by Chisel
03/09/24 01:55 PM
New Madrid Seismic Zone
by Jeanette_Isabelle
03/04/24 02:44 PM
EDC Reduction
by EchoingLaugh
03/02/24 04:12 PM
Using a Compass Without a Map
by KenK
02/28/24 12:22 AM
Newest Images
Tiny knife / wrench
Handmade knives
2"x2" Glass Signal Mirror, Retroreflective Mesh
Trade School Tool Kit
My Pocket Kit
Glossary
Test

WARNING & DISCLAIMER: SELECT AND USE OUTDOORS AND SURVIVAL EQUIPMENT, SUPPLIES AND TECHNIQUES AT YOUR OWN RISK. Information posted on this forum is not reviewed for accuracy and may not be reliable, use at your own risk. Please review the full WARNING & DISCLAIMER about information on this site.