Since man first flew into the air, he has known a fall. Every year, flying equipment became more complicated, more advanced and safer, but aircraft crashes continue to occur. The mass death of people during the fall of a passenger liner becomes not only a grief for the inconsolable relatives of the victims, but also a national tragedy.
At the same time, people who survived the crash become celebrities, which the media are talking about and writing in all over the world. This happens because there are very few of them.
Aircraft crash statistics
If we take the statistics of airplane crashes for the entire historical period of the development of passenger air transportation, we can conclude that they are extremely rare. The chance that the equipment will collapse during the flight, takeoff or landing is equal to 1/8 million. This means that a person will need more than 20,000 years of daily flights on random flights to board the very unlucky one.
Aircraft development engineers, insurance agents and statisticians are interested in the question: is it possible to survive in a plane crash? The answer is yes, since survivors after falling from such a height can share their experiences.
If we take the statistics of the identified causes of the fall of technology, then in percentage terms it will look like this:
- when the aircraft is loading, 5% of accidents happen (most often a fire);
- during take-off - 17% of accidents;
- when climbing only 8% of cases;
- during the flight 6%;
- when reducing the aircraft - 3%;
- approach is the cause of 7% of cases;
- aircraft landing - 51%.
Statistics of all recorded cases of airliner crash show that the greatest risk is present during takeoff and fall. This is probably why passengers applaud the pilots precisely after they complete this phase of the flight.
Survivors after a plane crash most often indicate that something suddenly went wrong with the plane. In fact, meticulous extras and workers responsible for flight safety note that the reasons for the sudden breakdown of devices or ignited engines are flaws that have not been identified on the ground, which means that the reasons for the fall of the airliners should first be looked there.
Reasons for the crash of aircraft
It is regrettable to say this , but the human factor is the main cause of all air crashes. Cars do not spoil themselves and do not incapacitate. The lack of proper attention when assembling them, during daily checks for malfunctions and deliberate work of pilots and controllers - all this often leads to the collapse of equipment.
Is it possible to survive in a plane crash if the experts did a poor job? And in this case, the answer will be yes, since today there are cases when more than 1 person remained alive.
The statistics of the crash of aircraft in percentage terms is as follows:
- pilot error is the cause of 50% of cases;
- errors of personnel serving during the flight were identified in 7% of the tragedies;
- weather conditions account for 12%;
- malfunction of devices and the machine as a whole - 22% (that which was not properly identified before the flight);
- terrorism and others (undetected causes or a clash in the air) - 9%.
Of the above reasons, except for weather, everything else is human activity. This suggests that tragedy could have been avoided, and the cases of survivors of the plane crash were much higher. If we take the statistics of the largest crashes in the last 30 years, then their cause is:
- DC-8 crashed in Newfoundland in 1985 on take-off due to loss of speed, killing 250 passengers;
- the fall of the Boeing 747 in 1985 in Japan was caused by poor repair, with 520 casualties;
- IL-76, the next from Kazakhstan to Saudi Arabia, crashed in India in 1996 from a mid-air collision with a Boeing, the result - 349 dead;
- IL-76 crashed in Iran in 2003 due to a blow to the ground with poor visibility, 275 people were killed;
- 224 people who did not survive the Kogalymavia plane crash in October 2015 added to the sad statistics: the reason is a possible terrorist attack.
These are far from all the major disasters that occurred from 1985 to 2015, but even they show that their cause is most often human inattention or dishonesty. The list of survivors of the crash would have been much longer if the flight safety experts had done their job well and the passengers knew what to do to stay alive.
What to do when an airplane crashes
It turns out that there are rules that really help people survive a crash. The most basic instructions are given by the stewardess before the flight. Unfortunately, most passengers do not listen to them, much less can put them into practice. Among the simplest recommendations, it is considered mandatory:
- to be fastened during takeoff and landing (ideally, it is better to be fastened during the whole flight);
- know where lifejackets are and how to use an oxygen mask;
- in an emergency, do not leave your seat, much less try to get into the luggage compartment in order to save your things;
- concentrate and take the correct pose before the plane collides with the ground or water (bend your head to your knees, covering it with your hands).
In addition to these simple rules, there are several conclusions of emergency specialists that people who survived the crash applied intuitively and did not suffer.
Most passengers die after the plane crashes and ignites, as they cannot get out of it on time. To avoid this, you should know in advance:
- how the seat belts come loose;
- exact direction to the exit (especially if there is smoke in the cabin);
- panic is 100% death.
For example, George Lamson, as a 17-year-old teenager in 1985, survived only because at the time of the collision of the plane with which he flew with his father, his seat was thrown out of the passenger compartment. If the boy had not been fastened and pressed his head to his knees, and after the fall had not been able to quickly unfasten himself and run away to a safe distance, he would have died, like the rest 70 people.
As the cases of survivors in a plane crash show, if a person does not panic and knows what to do, then he has every chance to survive. Studying examples of such tragedies, scientists came to the conclusion that many passengers, instead of getting out of an airplane, are waiting for someone else's directions or instructions. It is important to know that in such a situation, everyone is responsible for their own safety.
High risk situations
Although it may seem that the passengers who survived the crash are just lucky, in reality this is not so. As shown by the data of scientists from England who studied more than 2000 cases of salvation in such an accident, these people were helped not by a simple coincidence, but by specific knowledge and actions plus a bit of luck.
It turns out that there are more risky areas in planes and safer areas, as evidenced by survival statistics:
- for example, those who sit in the first five rows in the nose of the aircraft have a 65% chance of survival;
- it is even higher among those who sit in these rows on the extreme seats (67%), and not near the windows (58%);
- passengers in the tail of the aircraft have 53% survival if they also sit in the first five rows of the emergency exit;
- people who survived a plane crash and were sitting in the middle of the cabin are extremely rare.
In addition to risk zones in the cabin, the aircraft itself also plays an important role. Thus, statistics say that 73% of all air crashes occur in small aircraft, designed up to 30 seats. The fatal outcome of a single-engine or small aircraft crash is 68%, which suggests that the chance of survival among passengers and pilots of such vehicles is tantamount to a miracle.
There is only one conclusion: you should fly large planes of reliable companies. It is unlikely that only the right choice of a vehicle and a place in it will save lives in an emergency, but its passengers will have more chances to survive, and rescuers, when a large airliner crashes, do not ask themselves if there are survivors in the plane crash, but save them.
The most difficult situations
The most difficult and dangerous part of a disaster is a plane crashing with land or water. After this happened, people have only 1.5-2 minutes to stay alive. It is at this time that it is necessary to keep within to unfasten, find a way out and jump as far as possible.
The biggest threat to life is the fire and carbon monoxide that fills the cabin, which is confirmed by the woman who survived the plane crash. Larisa Savitskaya survived after the collision of the plane in which she flew with her husband, with a bomber. Having received burns from the beginning of the fire, she managed to concentrate and take the correct posture in the chair, which saved her life when she fell on it from the height of 5200 m for 8 minutes.
Tree branches were “softened" by its branches, but even after surviving such a fall, she had to endure a tremendous shock both from her injuries and from the fact that the rescuers were in no hurry to find the fallen plane, confident that no one had survived.
“Are there any survivors of the crash?” - This question should be first of all those who deal with such situations. For two days, Larisa was waiting for help with a fracture of the cervical spine and a head injury. She is the only one who got into the Guinness book twice for the same event:
- the first time as surviving after falling from a height of more than 5 km;
- the second - as having received the smallest compensation for the damage received - only 75 rubles.
No less a threat to human life is the collision of an airplane with a water surface, although most passengers naively believe that it can mitigate the fall. Such ignorance of the elementary laws of physics cost many people their lives.
Ocean fall
When a plane crashes over the ocean, the phenomenon is not uncommon, but the number of passengers killed in this case remains shockingly high, although there are survivors of the plane crash on the water.
This happens for several reasons:
- firstly, because of panic, people often cannot find and put on a life jacket;
- secondly, they put it into action too early, and when inflated, it prevents not only moving, but also to swim out of the cabin if water has entered there;
- thirdly, they do not know that a plane’s impact on water is tantamount to a collision with a concrete coating, and they may not buckle up to take a rescue position.
Except when the pilot makes an emergency landing on water, a fall into the ocean is just as dangerous as on the ground, which is confirmed by the only girl who survived the crash.
Bakari was 12 years old when she and her mother flew from Paris to Yemen. For an undetected reason, the plane crashed into the ocean 14 km from the coast of the island of Big Comoros. From a blow to the water it was torn to pieces, and the girl fell into the water. She was lucky that parts of the liner remained on its surface, on one of which she waited 14 hours until she was picked up by a fishing boat passing by.
The story of the girl went around the whole world, as this is one of those examples when, perhaps, there would have been more survivors, help was delivered in time. Hypothermia and life vests not put on in time claimed the lives of other passengers.
This is not the last example when the only survivor of a plane crash was to fight for life due to the lack of assistance on earth.
Fall in the jungle
Although there are examples where the fall of an airplane was mitigated by tree branches, the number of surviving passengers and crew did not increase. The way a person behaves during a tragedy still plays a large role.
An example of this is the story of a German 17-year-old schoolgirl traveling with her mother from Lima to Pucallpa (Peru) before Christmas 1971. In fact, it was a short flight, which became tragic due to the fact that the plane fell into turbulence during a thunderstorm.
From a lightning strike, the systems of the air ship went out of order, a fire started in the cabin. Juliana Kepke is the only passenger to survive the crash during this flight. At an altitude of 6400 m, both wings came off the aircraft, after which the airliner, which went into a tailspin, began to fall apart in parts.
The girl was saved by the fact that she was fastened and took a rescue position when a row of chairs, along with her seat, was "thrown" overboard. During the fall, along with the debris from the cabin, a strong wind rotated, which led to a decrease in the slope and a fall into the dense thickets of the Amazon jungle.
The consequences of the “landing” was a broken collarbone, abrasions and bruises, but even more trials awaited her. Located 500 km from Lima, in the thick of the jungle, not knowing the road, this young woman who survived a plane crash was forced to fight for life in an unfamiliar area.
For 9 days she walked down the river, fearing to move far from her, so as not to lose the source of water. Eating fruits and plants that she could recognize and pick, the girl went to the camp of the fishermen, who brought her to the hospital.
If Juliana remained to wait for help near the crashed plane, then most likely she would have died. Based on these events, the Italian television company made the feature film “Miracles Still Happen,” which subsequently saved the life of the Soviet girl Larisa Savitskaya, who had been waiting for two days for rescuers.
Crew survivors
Quite rarely, one can hear that crew members survived a plane crash. Perhaps they are busy saving passengers or are at that moment in the most “dysfunctional” part of the aircraft, but this is a fact.
But there are examples when the stewardess who survived the plane crash was the only one saved. Spring Vulovic in 1972 was only 22 years old, when on a regular flight from Copenhagen to Zagreb, the plane of the Yugoslav airline fell apart in the air as a result of the explosion of a terrorist bomb.
This case can be attributed to the “miracle”, as Spring was able to survive, being in the middle of the aircraft cabin when falling from a height of more than 10 km. A fragment of the car in which it was located fell on snowy trees, which greatly softened the blow.
The second “miracle” was that when she was unconscious, she was found by a peasant from a nearby village and taken to a hospital. The stewardess, who survived a plane crash when falling from such a height, was in a coma for almost a month, and then fought for another 16 months for the opportunity to move around and live a normal life.
Spring Vulovic became the Guinness Book champion as a man who made a parachute jump from 10 km altitude. It is unlikely that there will be a daredevil who, of his own free will, decides to surpass its result.
The fall of the Russian plane in Egypt
One of the most pressing topics in the fall of 2015 was the plane crash in Egypt. Today, “are there any survivors” - this is not the most important issue in this tragedy. If at first there were rumors that not all of the 224 people died, now it is a sad fact.
Today, the public is interested in the cause of the death of the airliner, and the guarantee that this will no longer happen to Russian aircraft.
The completely different versions of what happened with the Airbus A321 are presented by Russian and foreign media. The airliner that took off without delay 23 minutes after take-off disappeared from the radar of the dispatchers for unknown reasons.
One version of why survivors of a plane crash in Egypt were not found is the explosion of a bomb on board. The plane burst in the sky, so the passengers had practically no chances.
Egyptian authorities say no bomb was found in the wreckage of the aircraft. These data were published by them after experts from the USA, England and Russia came to a different conclusion.
The only reason for the discrepancy between the conclusions of experts is Egypt’s reluctance to lose potential customers in the tourist season and to pay compensation to Kogalymavia for the plane crash in its airspace. If there were survivors of a plane crash in Egypt, then they also received compensation for damage.
It is expected that both parties will come to an agreement, but looking back at the history of aeronautics, we can say that planes just do not fall apart in the air and do not disappear from radars. There are no final conclusions yet, but the world community understands what caused the plane crash in Egypt today. Are there any survivors, the answer to this question is unequivocal - "no."
Positive statistics
Knowing the meticulousness of scientists in the desire to calculate and measure everything, there is no doubt that they also studied the question of why people do not survive in a plane crash.
The reason is actually the most commonplace - the same human factor. If we take the statistics of changes in the causes of the crash of aircraft since 1908, then it will look like this:
- at the dawn of aircraft construction from 1908 to 1929 50% of the crashes were due to technical problems, 30% to weather conditions, 10% to fire and 10% to pilots;
- in the second half of the 20th century, the air fleet approached with different statistics - 24% were related to technology, 25% were to blame for the weather, pilot error - 37%, fire - 7%, and terrorist attacks only 5%;
- in the 21st century, statistics have completely changed - 45% - the culprit is the human factor, 13% - weather, 32% - malfunctions in technology, fire - 3%, and terrorist attacks occupy 4% of cases.
So the causes of air disasters in the air over 100 years have changed. Nevertheless, today it is the safest type of movement, because the crash occurs with a probability of 0.00001%. In addition, more and more facts appear when not one person survives a plane crash, but a significant part of the passengers.
For example, 4 people survived a plane crash that occurred in Japan in 1985. 12 minutes after takeoff, the plane suffered a depressurization in the tail section. The pilots managed to keep the car in the air for 32 minutes, after which the board crashed 100 km from the capital of Japan. According to the survivors, there could have been more people saved, as people asked for help, but by the time the rescuers arrived, who were not in a hurry, 520 people were dead. They were killed by hypothermia and wounds received during the fall.
Unfortunately, information about the saved is not always true. So it was when they reported that 4 people survived in a plane crash over Egypt. In this case, you can only sympathize with people who have found hope for a miracle, but then again lost it.
In the Russian history of aviation, there are also examples when passengers survived when the plane crashed. So, people who survived the Kogalymavia plane crash in 2011 when a plane that only steered onto the runway caught fire, got a lucky ticket. Out of 116 passengers and 6 crew members, only three people died, while the Tu-154 was completely burned down.