What Are the Safest Seats on an Airplane in a Crash?

Airplane passengers seated in the back have a roughly 40% better chance of surviving a crash than those in the front. This is the conclusion of a 2007 study that looked at 20 commercial flight crashes between 1971 and 2007. Upon studying the survival rates of passengers in different sections of airplanes, it was discovered that passengers sitting in the rear section were more likely to survive than passengers sitting in the front section. The study estimated the rear cabin has a 69% survival rate in the event of a crash, whereas those in the first class cabin have a 49% chance of survival. Another 2013 study reached the same conclusion.

Spokespersons for the aviation industries, however, beg to differ and argue that no one seat in an airplane is safer than the others. Many experts say it is not possible to know the safest seats because it depends on how an airplane crashes. On the other hand, some experts think sitting close to an exit increases the chances of survival during a crash.

Flying continues to be one of the safest modes of transportation. The odds of being killed in an airplane are slim, estimated at 1 in 4.7 million.

More about airplane flights:

• The first ever commercial flight took place on January 1, 1914 between St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida, USA.
• Pakistan International was the first non-US airline to make films available on commercial flights.
• "Polar One" was the first flight to provide a 16 hour transpolar trip between New York and Hong Kong in 1998.