What is the safest seat on an airplane?

For The Conversation

When you book a flight, do you wonder which seat will protect you the most in an emergency? Probably not.

Most people reserve seats for comfort, such as legroom, convenience, or easy access to the toilet. Frequent flyers (including myself) sometimes reserve their seat as close as possible to the front of the plane to be able to disembark more quickly.

We rarely book a flight expecting to get one of the middle seats in the last row. Well, guess what? These seats are statistically the safest on an airplane.

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Air travel is safe

Before getting to the heart of the matter, I would like to remind you that air transport is the safest mode of transport. In 2022, there were just under 70 million flights worldwide, with just 174 fatalities.

According to analysis of census data by the US National Security Council, the odds of dying on an airplane are approximately 1 in 205,552, compared to 1 in 102 in a car. Despite this, we pay little attention to road fatalities, but when we hear about a plane crashing, it's front page news.

Our interest in plane crashes may lie in our desire to understand why they happen, or what the chances are of them happening again. And that may not be a bad thing: our interest helps ensure that these tragic incidents are thoroughly investigated, which contributes to the safety of air travel.

There's really no need to worry about safety when boarding a commercial flight. But if you still have that nagging question in your mind, driven by pure curiosity, read on.

In the middle, in the back

It is worth remembering that accidents, by their very nature, are not up to standard. When United Flight 232 crashed in Sioux City, Iowa in 1989, 184 of the 269 people on board survived the crash. Most of the survivors were seated behind first class, towards the front of the aircraft.

Nevertheless, a survey by the American magazine Time which examined 35 years of data on plane crashes found that the middle rear seats of an airplane had the lowest fatality rate: 28 per cent, compared to 44 per cent for the seats from the central aisle.

It is also logical. Sitting next to a row where the exit is will always give you the quickest exit in an emergency, provided there is no fire on that side. But an airplane's wings store fuel, which disqualifies centre exit rows as the safest row option.

At the same time, being closer to the front means you'll be hit before those in the back, leaving us with the last row that counts one exit. As for why middle seats are safer than window or aisle seats, it's, as you might expect, because of the buffer of having people around each side.

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Some crashes are worse than others

The type of accident will also determine survivability. Colliding with a mountain will decrease the chances of survival exponentially, as it did in a tragic 1979 disaster in New Zealand. Air New Zealand Flight TE901 crashed into the slopes of Mount Erebus in Antarctica , killing 257 passengers and crew.

Landing in the ocean nose forward also decreases chances of survival, as shown by 2009 Air France Flight 447, in which 228 passengers and crew perished.

Pilots are trained to minimise potential risks in the event of an emergency. They will try to avoid hitting mountains and look for a flat place, like an open field, to land as normally as possible. The water landing technique involves assessing surface conditions and attempting to land between waves at a normal landing angle.

Airplanes are designed to be very robust in emergency situations. In fact, the main reason cabin crew reminds us to keep our seat belts fastened is not the risk of being crushed, but the “clear air turbulence” that can be encountered anytime at high altitudes. It is this meteorological phenomenon that can cause the most damage to passengers and aircraft .

Manufacturers are designing new planes with more composite materials that can withstand in-flight stresses. In these designs, the wings are not rigid and can flex to absorb extreme loading to prevent structural failure.

Does the type of plane make a difference?

It is true that some variables, such as the impact of speed, may vary slightly from one type of aircraft to another. However, the physics of flight is more or less the same for all aircraft.

In general, larger aircraft have more structural materials and therefore more strength to withstand pressurisation at altitude. This means that they can provide additional protection in an emergency, but again this depends on the severity of the emergency.

That doesn't mean you have to book your next flight on the biggest plane you can find. As I mentioned, air travel remains very safe.