Jet seat position a life-saver

[Chris Tully]

IT is the question that most nervous flyers ask themselves whenever they board an aircraft: where is the safest place to sit?

The answer is much clearer after an exhaustive study of 105 accidents and personal accounts from almost 2000 survivors of how they managed to escape from crash-landings and onboard fires.

The study, by London's Greenwich University, found the seats with the best survival rate were in the emergency exit row and the row in front or behind it. People sitting between two and five rows from the exit had a better than even chance of escaping in a fire but the odds fall at six or more rows from an exit.

Passengers sitting towards the front of the aircraft had a 65 per cent chance of escaping a fire, while the survival rate for those at the rear was 53 per cent. The survival rate in aisle seats was 64per cent, compared with 58per cent for other passengers.

The most dangerous seats are those six or more rows from an exit. The study says: "Here, the chances of perishing far outweigh those of surviving."

The findings appear to support the increasing trend among airlines, such as Virgin Blue, for charging passengers extra for exit seats.

One flaw with the tests was that people were much more willing to comply with directions from cabin crew under experimental conditions than in real danger.

The good news is that the university's Fire Safety Engineering Group notes on its website that the chances of being involved in an accident are extremely small and the chances of surviving a "technically survivable accident" are high.

But it has a series of safety tips to further increase the odds, including the obvious one of choosing a seat as close to the emergency exit as possible.

Others include seating family groups together in the same row.

Once on board, it advises to check where the nearest two exit rows are and before take-off count how many seat rows away they are.

You should also do this before you land and make sure you read the safety card, paying particular attention to the brace position to give you the best chance of being able to evacuate.

The Australian.