This Seat on the Plane Saved a Passenger from a Crash. Why Was It the Best?

Last Thursday, a huge tragedy occurred. A Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger plane from Air India with 240 people on board crashed just after takeoff. The tragedy is that the plane crashed into a residential area, which increased the death toll. At the moment, only one passenger is known to have survived. One may wonder what effect the seat he occupied on board had on this. Was it safer than others for some reason?

The passenger from seat 11A survived.

The passenger who survived was Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 38-year-old British citizen of Indian origin. Contrary to appearances, his seat at the back of the plane did not help him survive. The man was seated in seat 11A, which has been considered uncomfortable for years.

Seat 11A is often discouraged, among others, for Ryanair and Boeing 737-800 customers. What it looks like on the plane is even shown in photos. They show that we are sitting against the wall, and the window is not next to the seat, but above the emergency door. However, this is a positive fact. In this case, sitting close to the exit was supposed to be crucial. The man on the Air India plane claimed that he jumped just before impact.

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Not only did the Briton survive, he was also conscious the entire time , and his life is currently out of danger. The technical details of the crash are not known, but the fact that seat 11A was the safest may depend on many factors. The angle of impact, the type of failure, and even the passenger's seating position all have an impact.

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So how does the passenger's situation compare to the theories known to flying fans?

The safest seats on a plane

Here it is worth returning to the common principles related to safety during the flight. Namely, it is worth remembering that the seats located in the back, in the middle, but also all those near the emergency exits of the plane are considered the safest. The fact that this is the case was studied by, among others, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board in the USA, which analyzed previous disasters. As for seat 11 A, it met these conditions.

It is worth remembering that in an emergency situation, it is not only the seat that can save us. The protective seating position, the so-called brace position, also turns out to be crucial, when the passenger leans forward, rests their forehead on the back of the seat in front of them, puts their hands on the back or intertwines them behind their head, and puts their feet flat on the ground. This helps to minimize the risk of injury. In addition, the chances of survival can be increased by hitting the so-called air pocket, which is created by the structure of the wreck. This protects against the force of impact and fire.