where's the safest place to sit on a plane if you're worried about a crash
well it's probably not here I'll explain it all coming up hey 74 crew
welcome back if you don't know me my name is Kelsey I'm a 747 pilot my
channel 74 gear is all about aviation today I'm here in downtown Seattle
Washington and this is the view from my hotel room in this video I'm going to
tell you about statistically where the safest place to sit is on an aircraft if
you're worried about a plane crash let's get into it when I was a kid I remember
getting on a plane to thinking about I wonder where the safest place to sit is
in case this plane crashes and in my head I thought it would be first class
because the pilots are the ones that are flying the plane and they don't want to
die so made sense to me to be as close to them as possible logical decision
logically arrived at while it's reasonable to think that statistically
it's not correct in the event of an accident which is really unlikely we are
as pilots on a very cramped area and the flight attendants priority is going to
be evacuating the passengers on the aircraft if you watch a lot of my videos
you know that I talk about safety being the number-one priority and in my mind
not crashing a plane is involving safety so rule number one don't crash your
plane I know some of you watched my channel because you have a fear of
aviation and while statistically it is not likely that you're going to ever be
involved in an aviation accident there's some things that I want to give you to
consider when you're choosing your seat one of the reasons that aviation
accidents make the news is because they are so rare if it would happen all the
time it wouldn't be on the news very much so that's something to consider
when you're seeing these huge accidents that happen in aviation it's because
it's such a rarity so you're telling me there's a chance every day there are
people driving their car and they're texting or putting on their makeup or
doing something else and those people are passing you at a very fast rate so
in reality it is definitely more dangerous to be driving a car than it is
to be in an aircraft the other thing to consider is that not every airline is
the same there are some airlines that are prohibited from flying into Europe
or into the US because they have poor training and poor maintenance standards
so those would be airlines that I would personally choose
not to fly on and that's not to say that their pilots are worst pilots or not
great pilots they could be great pilots but there are definitely some issues
that are going on that airline that are prohibiting them from entering US or
European airspace so I would definitely look to see if that airline is
prohibited from flying into other countries or over their airspace because
if they are that's definitely not an airline you're probably going to want to
fly with let's talk about some of the statistics I'm gonna use some of this
stuff from the FAA and the US Department of Transportation obviously because
that's information that I'm able to get and understand a lot easier this graph
shows you the number of accidents that have happened on aircraft above 19 seats
the reason that 19 seats is an important number to keep in mind is under 19 seats
there are different requirements for the pilots for the airlines for the
maintenance and all of those things so an aircraft with above 19 seats has a
higher or more strict standard what's required from the airline for training
for maintenance and things like that so as you can see the aviation accidents
are on a decline while overall aviation is growing really rapidly and these are
statistics from the Bureau of Transportation it breaks down the
different types of flying as far as which one is the safest and obviously at
the top of the list of what is the safest you have airlines as most of you
know in the airlines were required to always have two pilots up there in some
cases we have more strict training standards so it is generally going to be
your more experienced pilots that have more experience and more training in
flying their aircraft
next you have what is known as part 135 now I was a part 135 pilot I flew with 2
different outfits that were part 135 before I went to the airlines that
doesn't mean that they are not safe Airlines to fly with it's just a
different type of training and in some cases in part 135 you only have one
pilot when you only have one pilot you have a higher chance of having an issue
and that's why the airlines have chosen to always have two pilots up there in
your part 135 you're seeing smaller aircraft it could be a four seater it
could be a small private jet all of those things are gonna fall under the
135 umbrella and with things like infrequent flying and possibly one pilot
and maybe different training standards you have a higher risk when you're doing
that types of flying and in some cases a 135 airline might be flying into more
high-risk locations and so again it increases the risk of what could happen
in a 135 environment and finally the most dangerous types of flying that can
take place is general aviation general aviation are people who usually fly for
fun that could also be student pilots things like that that type of flying is
obviously the least structured usually you have your least inexperienced pilots
and so that obviously increases the risk of what could go wrong so statistically
the safest seat to be on is on a commercial aircraft your typical
airlines but which seat on that aircraft is a whole other subject in 2011 or 2012
some scientists actually set up a 727 to crash into the desert and they use crash
test dummies to see what the impacts were and where the safest place to sit
on an aircraft was and I want you to know before I get into this I never
choose my seat on any aircraft based on this statistic I choose a seat based on
what I think is gonna be the most comfortable for me because at the end of
the day statistically the likelihood of being in a crash on a plane is very very
slim unless of course you show up to the plane and I'm your pilot then you
probably want to pay attention to these statistics tag burn so starting from the
front of the plane going backwards statistically your flight crew your
people up on the flight deck have your lowest chance of survival we fly
together we die together what oh no that's just somebody say we're up there
like I said in a very close space and the front of the plane is
going to impact something because it's moving forward and so we're most likely
to have a fatality in the event of an accident then you're going to have your
first class and then your middle of your plane is going to be your second safest
place to be in the cabin area and finally the aft part the reason the
after the plane is more likely to be safer is because it's further from the
impact zone most likely now there obviously have been cases where the
people in the back of the plane had a fatality v for whatever reason but
statistically you're less likely to be injured if you're in the back side of
the plane now once you're in the back side of the plane sitting in the aisle
gives you the most options in the event that there's a crash you being in the
aisle allows you to get up into the aisle and evacuate the aircraft quicker
another thing that's really important to consider is in the event that you are in
a plane crash you're going to want to brace bracing before the impact will
definitely decrease the chances of anything happening to you which will
allow you to evacuate the plane faster and easier and possibly help the other
passengers around you at the end of the day if you are ever in an aircraft
emergency or possibility of having an aircraft accident the most important
thing you can do is listen to your flight attendant and listen to your
pilots they're not the boss of me we spend a lot of training and a flight
attendant a lot more training that we do as far as for evacuating people and
getting you off the plane safely they're very familiar with the plane how to work
the doors and how to get you off the plane quickly so it's important if you
are ever in a situation where you're going to be an accident be quiet and
listen to your flight attendants if you didn't see the full crash analysis that
I did on Madagascar 2 I'll put a link to that Hollywood versus reality right here
I look forward to hearing from you until then keep the blue side up