Eight million of us take to the skies
every single day, with the annual total
recently pushing past three billion mark,
and in our lifetime we are each likely to
spend an average of 12 days in the air.
And even though the odds of a plane
crash are one for every 1.2 million flights.
Around 30% of us still
suffer anxiety when it comes to flying.
Maybe that's because, even though
the odds are incredibly low there have
been over 23,000 crashes since the dawn
of aviation. The last decade alone has
seen a total of 1770 plane crashes which
resulted in over 11,000 fatalities.
So are Airlines doing all they can keep to
you safe, or when the unthinkable happens and
your plane begins plummeting towards the
ground are they doing quite the opposite.
I'm Stu, this is Debunked and we're
here to sort the truths from the myths
and the facts from the misconceptions.
Google brace position and you'll be
flooded with results around the idea that
it's designed to either kill or at the
very least to preserve passengers
teeth to identify their remains. So why has
this become a popular theory? And how is it
supposed to work? It's proposed that in
the event of a crash the brace position
is designed to kill you for breaking
your neck and back on impact with the
seat in front of you.
Why would the airlines want to do this?
Well if you die in a plane crash,
the airline will most likely have to pay out
for a wrongful death lawsuit.
However if you survive having sustained
multiple injuries, then the airline is
faced with a hefty compensation payout
and future disability claims.
Now unnervingly this is where fact comes
into play, it is cheaper for an airline
to let you die by wrongful death rather
than help you survive a plane crash and
pay you compensation, because a
wrongful death law suit is shockingly
calculated at 3 - 40 million dollars less
than the average visibility play out.
There are no confirmed cases, that
airlines have ever capitalize on this
but history has shown that big business
has chosen financial benefit
over custom safety before. Let me take
you back to the 1970s and
the Ford Pinto controversy.
Commercial: "The economical little Pinto at your local
Ford dealer"
The Ford Pinto had a serious fault and
the manufacturers weighed up the cost of
modifying its design to make them safe
it was estimated that the subsequent
product recall and changes would cost
113 million dollars, on the other hand
potential damage payout if accidents
occurred due to this faulty design,
were calculated at 43 million dollars.
AMAZINGLY Ford opted not to make its
cars safe.
This resulted in between 27 and 180
fatalities. So we know that financial gain
can be the preferred option for big
business. But before we go any further
let's look at the science behind the
brace position itself and see what
evidence there is to prove it really
works. Officially designed to protect
passengers and offer them the best
chance of survival during a plane crash,
the brace position as we currently know
it, was introduced after the Kegworth Air
Disaster in 1989, this was a plane crash
involving 118 passengers, there were
47 fatalities, and of the 79 survivors,
74 had serious injury.
An investigation into this crash discovered
that the recommended brace position at
the time may have actually led to some
of the injuries the passangers
suffered during the crash. The
traditional brace position for those in
economy, caused the passengers legs, arms,
and torso to flail around after the
initial impact, causinging multiple
fractures. After the keg with a disaster
the brace position was updated and the
FAA released new instructions in 1994.
This version, the one you may currently
recognize, advises passengers to position
their head and arms on the seat or
bulkhead in front of them, and the
passengers feet should be placed flat on
the floor and slightly in front of the
edge of the seat. This aimed to make it
more effective at saving lives and
reducing injuries, by minimizing the
movement your body will endure during and
after the initial impact. Since then
there have been multiple accounts where
the brace position has been credited for
saving passengers lives and minimizing
their injuries. The most recent evidence
comes from the '2012 Boeing 727 Crash
Experiment', in this an unmanned plane
with deliberately crashed into a desert
in Mexico, with crash test dummies set
in three different positions.
1, in the brace position with the seat belt fastened.
2, with just a seat belt fastened
3, without a seat belt and not in the brace position.
The results found that the dummy with
neither its belt fastened, nor in the
brace position would have certainly
perished in the crash,
no surprises there. The dummy with
just it's seat belt fastened would have survived
but with significant injuries. But the
dummy wearing a seatbelt and adopting
the brace position would have certainly survived.
This has most recently been demonstrated
during the famous miracle on the Hudson
plane crash in 2009, where there was a
100% survival rate, as well as due to the
heroics of Captain Sullenberg, the lack of
fatalities has also been attributed to the use of the
brace position. An even better example
from the flight safety foundation, cites a
crash where all passengers were
either sleeping or reading, they had no
warning of the impending impact, except
one sixteen-year-old he woke, looked out
of the window, saw they were about to crash,
and adopted the brace position. He was
the only survivor.
There is evidence of numerous other
cases that back up the positive use of the
brace position, but if that doesn't
convince you then the stats speak for
themselves.
A study looking at commercial aviation
between 1983 in 2000 showed
there were 568 plane crashes in the US alone,
these involve a total of
53487 people on board and of these
51207 people survived.
That's 95%. If the brace
position was designed to kill, then that
survival rate will be significantly
lower. If you want to be among that nice
95% it is probably in your best interest
to adopt the brace position. Each airline
and safety organization has a slight
variance on the brace position, but try
to remember these 3 basic things:
1. lean forward and get your torso as low
as possible, in economy or coach ensure
your forearms and head are touching the
seat in front of you, and make sure your
seatbelt is fastened securely, this
prevents your body jackknifing forward
and striking the seat in front, OR your
body flailing around and colliding with
other parts of the plane. 2. Protect your head
place your hands behind your head
without interlocking fingers and ensure
your forearms protect the sides of your
face, in the Kegworth air crash many
passengers were killed by luggage that fell
from overhead compartments. Place any
loose luggage under the seat in front of you
and have your feet flat firmly on the floor,
this prevents your legs jolting forward
into the base of the seat in front, crushing
your shins and breaking your legs,
inhibiting you from escaping the aircraft.
And you might want to consider where you
sit on the plane, manufacturers Boeing,
and the U.S Aviation Administration say
that one seat is as safe as another.
But a study by Popular Mechanics Magazine
found that 45% of plane crash survivors
were sat at the front of the plane, while 56%
survived over the wing, but records show
your most likely to survive at the rear
of the plane with 69% of
passengers walked away. So I guess, it doesn't
always pay to go first class.