Aviation safety: Passenger survival in emergencies linked to position of seats in aircraft

A passenger’s choice of seat in an aircraft has much to do with his safety. A study on aviation safety, commissioned by the Civil Aviation Authority of the United Kingdom and conducted by Greenwich University, found that the airplane seats with the best survival rate are in the emergency-exit row and the row in front or behind it.

This conclusion was reached after the study examined 105 aviation accidents and personal accounts of 2,000 airline disaster survivors.

In the aircraft seats between the second and fifth rows, passengers still have a better than even chance of escaping in a fire, but “’the difference between surviving and perishing is greatly reduced,” the study found.

The most dangerous seats in a plane are those six or more rows from an exit, in which “the chances of perishing far outweigh those of surviving.”

According to the report, airline passengers sitting towards the front of the aircraft have a 65% chance of escaping a fire, while the survival rate for those passengers in the rear-ward of the aircraft is 53%.

The survival rate in aisle seats of a plane is 64%, compared with 58% for passengers in other seats.

Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited, the report said, charges 50 or 75 pounds one way for a seat in an exit row. (Virgin Atlantic, based in the United Kingdom, is owned by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Singapore Airlines. It operates long-haul routes between the United Kingdom and North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia from its main bases at London’s Heathrow Airport and London’s Gatwick Airport).

The findings of the airplane safety study have given rise to concern about the trend for airlines to charge extra for exit seats, or giving people the opportunity to choose their seats online.

The study may even prompt airlines to consider putting families and elderly people near the plane’s exits. However, regulations require airline passengers in seats near the aircraft exits to be fit enough to help to open the door.

Robert Gifford, director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, was quoted by Times newspaper as saying: “Your chance of survival should not be based on your ability to pay for an emergency exit seat or to reserve your seat online.”

Rules require an aircraft to undergo an evacuation test to show that everyone on board can escape within 90 seconds when half of the exits are blocked. However, the study conducted by Greenwich University found that this test was flawed because it did not take “social bonds” into account.

It has been noticed that, in emergencies, passengers postpone their escape to help friends or relatives while people who were travelling with colleagues in the plane tend to look after their own survival.

Also, airline passengers have been found to be much more willing to obey directions from cabin crew in practice situations than in a genuine emergency.