Survivors of a plane crash. Real stories. Air crash survivors

Your clothes should be, first of all, comfortable. It’s a good idea to have a minimum supply of warm clothes with you in case there is an emergency landing in an unfamiliar area and you have to survive and wait for help.

Too tight clothing that restricts movement, and too wide, which will cling to objects in a critical situation, is undesirable.

Wool and cotton clothes are best, they burn worse than synthetic ones.

Shoes should also be comfortable and safe.

Even if you are used to high heels, these shoes make it difficult to move several times. And it is generally unrealistic to go down the inflatable evacuation ladder in it. It is better if the shoes are closed. In sandals, you can cut your feet on sharp objects or pieces of metal.

Where to sit?

According to statistics, most of the survivors are on the tail of the aircraft. Economy class is safer to fly than business class. It's also a good idea to have an emergency exit near your seat, as this will increase your chances of being rescued.

Sitting down in your seat, count the number of rows from yours to the row with the emergency exit. If there is an accident or a plane crash and there is smoke in the cabin, it will be easier for you to get to the exit. If you do not rely on memory, then write this number on your hand.

If you are sitting right next to the evacuation entrance, be sure to read the instructions for opening it. Of course, this business is the responsibility of crew members and staff, but situations are different.

During the flight

Your seat belt should not only be fastened, but also tightly tightened.

Even when you sleep, do not loosen the belt. During , every extra inch of loose belt triples the acceleration force you experience.

Still, read the safety instructions and listen carefully to the flight attendant before flying. Most likely, you will not need this information, but if you ignore something that may be vital to you, you will not forgive yourself later. It doesn't take long. And different planes may have some nuances in emergency briefing.

The crash of the liner in Taipei on February 4, 2015, when some of the passengers remained alive and unharmed, again raised the question: why did someone die, and someone still managed to stay alive? So, there is still a chance to survive. It remains only to figure out how to increase them. Pravda. Ru I studied the history of the issue, talked with experienced practitioners, and it turned out that the main thing that helps pilots, if something happens, to save the situation, and passengers to stay alive, is the absence of panic on board.

It's scary to fly: more private jets will appear in the sky

Let's lose sight of, so to speak, unambiguously catastrophic "lethal" situations. Moreover, they are quite rare - air transport, according to statistics, is much safer than any other technical means of moving in space. And no one will have time to do anything if, say, a missile fired by some, excuse me, unlucky Ukrainian rocket launchers hits the liner, as was the case, say, in the case of the Tu-154 on October 4, 2001 over the Black Sea.

But is there really any chance of surviving in a plane crash where there is at least some control over what is happening - for example, an emergency landing, cabin depressurization, a small fire on board? Are there any special rules for passengers that can reduce the risk of death in air crashes?

“Of course, there is always a chance, and we must hope for it,” he commented on the situation in an interview with Pravda. Ru Honored Pilot of the USSR. - I'll give you an example. In the 60s, our An-24 aircraft at an altitude of six thousand meters was accidentally shot down by our own missiles. It was in the area between Kemerovo and Novosibirsk. Everyone died, unfortunately, but one young girl survived, because her chair with part of the fuselage of the aircraft fell off and fell on a huge pine tree above the taiga. Then she fell into a deep snowdrift under this pine tree and is still alive. Imagine, from six thousand meters without a parachute. This is for your question. As for the disaster in Taipei, it all depends on who and where was at the time of the aircraft strike."

The correspondent of the site asked if this means that there are chances to survive. Are there any rules for passengers that can reduce the risk of death in air crashes?

“Yes, there are rules, and the stewardess lists them, explaining what needs to be done. When flying as a passenger, I note that no one pays serious attention to these rules, no one listens. This is frivolity. Nobody knows what will happen and when. Therefore you should always listen and be ready for it.Suppose you are flying through the water, some systems fail, the plane lands at sea.And a person who is ready for this, carefully listened to the instructions, understands how to work with an emergency frock coat and an inflatable boat, has more chances to survive," Oleg Smirnov noted.

The correspondent of the site asked whether personal safety depends on the seat on the plane.

"No, this is a myth. Some say - rear seats. It all depends on the nature of the disaster and what place the plane touches when it hits the ground. But, as a rule, everyone dies in the most severe disasters. For me, as the commander of the ship, everyone are the same, we are all in the same boat, whether you are in business class or economy. In case of any failures, I think about landing the liner in a way that saves everyone's life. And every ship commander must be prepared for this. I have only one boss at the same time - the Almighty, in the form of thunderstorms, turbulence and jet streams. But we cope with this in such a way that the passenger does not even notice it, "the pilot emphasized.

“First, let’s dispel a few myths that are spread primarily not among the flight crew, but among the passengers,” he shared his opinion on this matter in a telephone conversation with a Pravda correspondent. Ru Honored Pilot of Civil Aviation of the Russian Federation Nikolai Luzhin, who has repeatedly spoken in our publication on various issues of air security. - For several decades I have been piloting airliners exclusively on long-distance routes and, alas, I have come across such myths more than once.

The main myth is that the passenger, in case of some "misunderstandings", will be able to somehow influence the flight of the aircraft himself, straighten it out with his screams and running around the cabin. Only a pilot can help! Pilots are selected, including the psychological stability test. According to their psychophysiological data, only one out of six perfectly healthy young people can become a pilot. In this profession, one cannot be a coward, one must be able to accept right decisions, to take responsibility. You always need to assess the situation in such a way as not to drive yourself, or the airship, or passengers into some kind of situation from which there is no way out ...

Alas, the most dangerous thing on board is panic. In which case, you need to silently buckle up, squeeze into a chair, cover your head with your hands and rely on the experience of the pilots. You don't have to take any action on your own! Although if a person is a believer, he can quite (to himself) read any prayer in order to calm down.

Of course, aviation accidents are different. And then Nikolai Luzhin very popularly listed the main myths that harm security.

The first one (by the way, our previous expert also spoke about it): you need to try to take places closer to the tail of the aircraft or opposite the emergency exit. In fact, in most emergency cases, this does not play a special role. It is much more important that all passengers do not panic and, in which case, leave the board in an organized manner, without pushing or disturbing others.

Second: flight attendants read out pre-flight safety information to show off to passengers. Nothing like this! This is done just for safety. Therefore, it is better not to look at the figure of the stewardess, but to listen and delve into what she says, even if you have already flown a thousand times. In the language of psychologists, by joining this information, you are participating in the formation of the so-called victorious egregor, as if promising good luck. Be serious!

Third: the safety instruction scheme serves only to fan it if you suddenly feel hot in the cabin. In fact, this is your survival card. Where is the emergency exit, how to inflate a vest or raft, where to expect the appearance of an oxygen mask - you will find all this there.

Fourth: in which case you need to relax and spit on everything. Vice versa! In an emergency, you need to group up. Sometimes you only have a few seconds to do this. By the way, the ability to quickly group will help not only during an emergency landing, but also just during very strong turbulence.

And finally, the fifth myth: those who "drank" alcohol before boarding or right on board are always more lucky, such as "a drunken sea knee-deep". Nothing like this! Even statistics show that drunk people in aviation accidents that are not related to complete catastrophes, when everyone dies at the same time, get injured much more often. The reason is distraction of attention in a stressful situation. So it’s easier to overcome difficulties “on a sobering-up day”.

And finally, our expert admitted that he was joking: in fact, there are not five, not 25 such myths, but much more, there’s someone who’s into it much - he listed only the most basic ones ... And he added once again that passengers should first of all be attentive to the crew’s instructions and clearly follow all instructions without exception. And this is the main point!

Today, the issue of safety during air travel is more important than ever (and it will become more and more important in the future). Firstly, due to the fact that they are slowly changing magnetic poles Earth (fact). And with what speed they will change further (and in what direction) is not known. In one “beautiful” moment, everything can simply change dramatically and lead to catastrophic consequences. Also, one should not exclude the possibility of solar plasma ejection towards the earth, which (theoretically) can lead to a complete power outage (and the defeat of all electrical appliances, including, of course, aircraft) on Earth. Therefore, we read and remember ...

Today, the plane is one of the safest modes of transport. This is true, but only within the framework of statistics. It must be added that if car accident or a train wreck can still be saved, then a plane crash usually means the death of all passengers on board.

When on January 26, 1972, a bomb exploded on board a JAT DC-9 aircraft, and the wreckage of the liner collapsed from a height of more than 10 km, it was clear to everyone that none of the passengers escaped. However, the flight attendant Vesna Vulovich survived. How could this happen? Some believe that Vesna Vulovich was saved by the fact that she had low blood pressure - she quickly lost consciousness, and this saved her from heart attack. Others simply believe that a miracle happened. As a result of the disaster, Vulovich herself developed amnesia - she does not remember either the explosion itself, or even what happened an hour before it. Therefore, it is unlikely that we will ever know the truth about this unusual case. Unusual because it has never happened before that someone survived the crash of a plane flying so high.

Most often, a plane crash in which someone survived is an unsuccessful takeoff of an airplane or its forced landing. The forces acting in such cases are not as destructive as, for example, when two planes collide, tanks full of fuel explode, or fall from a great height. However, there is always a chance to survive, and it depends on many factors.

If you look at pictures of air crashes, then they often show how the tail of the aircraft sticks out of the wreckage, sometimes even intact. It is the tail that touches the ground last during the fall, so the passenger sitting in the back has the greatest chance of surviving. The dimensions of the aircraft also matter: the larger the car, the safer it is.

In passenger aircraft, there is no catapult for the pilot, as, for example, in fighters; also, you can not escape from a falling plane by parachute. Everything that is in passenger airliners serves solely to avoid bodily harm, which can be received in the cabin during the flight.

One of the most frequent accidents on board an aircraft is bruises and other injuries sustained during turbulence.

Turbulence is a variety of eddies and air currents that randomly move inside the atmosphere in various directions. Over half of the cases of turbulence occur with an aircraft at an altitude of over 6 thousand meters, 30% - at an altitude of up to 3 thousand meters and 5-10% - in the range from 3 to 6 thousand meters. Most often this happens in sunny days over houses or over an area with a strong temperature contrast (sand, forest, lake, road) - earth's surface warms up unevenly, and heated air masses rise up from different speed, which can cause the aircraft to take off in updrafts or fall into air pockets.

This is exactly what happened to the Boeing 747 of American Airlines, which flew over Pacific Ocean December 28, 1997. Once in the turbulent zone, the huge machine instantly lost several tens of meters in height. All loose objects on board immediately took off, hit the ceiling and fell on the heads of the passengers sitting in the chairs. The most severely injured were those of the people who, although they were sitting in their seats, were not wearing seat belts. The plane itself was not injured and continued to fly, but one woman died as a result of her injuries, and the remaining 100 wounded required medical attention.

Since airplanes fly at altitudes where the air is very rarefied and its pressure is much lower than usual, the cabin of the airliner must be airtight - as soon as the slightest crack appears, all the air will escape from the aircraft through it, and this is very dangerous. Therefore, most modern aircraft are equipped with oxygen masks that automatically hover over each passenger seat in the event of a cabin depressurization, and the pilots immediately begin to lower the flight altitude.

Information about an impending disaster, nervousness of the crew, smoke or fire escaping from the engines - all this can cause panic. First, never lose your head. It is advisable to get to know everyone before the start emergency systems that are on the plane. It is worth considering your own evacuation plan - find out where the emergency exit is located, and figure out what can be done in the event of a disaster.

If there is a threat of an emergency landing, you need to get rid of sharp objects (pencils, pens, etc.); it would be nice to have something soft (like a pillow) to protect your head.

And in addition, we are watching an issue from MythBusters, just about the safety of airliners.

In the beginning, let's make a reservation: not all the rules of survival given by us work in lightning catastrophes, like the recent An-148 crash in the Moscow region. However, if you have at least a couple of minutes before the moment X arrives, do not waste them and urgently remember what we taught you. There is almost always a chance to get out.

All 309 passengers survived the failed landing and subsequent fire of an Airbus A-340 that arrived from Paris to Toronto on August 2, 2005. In heavy rain, the pilot was unable to stop the heavy aircraft on the runway: after breaking through the airfield barrier, the airbus traveled another 300 m, got stuck in the ground, broke into two parts and flared up. The crew began preparing for the evacuation of passengers even before the liner stopped; firefighters arrived at the plane a minute later; panic on board was avoided. As a result, only 43 people applied for medical care, and Canadian Transport Minister Jean Lapierre called the incident "The Miracle in Toronto".

Deputy Director of the Department of Fire and Rescue Forces, Special Fire Protection and Civil Defense Forces of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, international class rescuer

If, having dozed off in an airplane seat, you wake up from the cries of “Help!”, The face of your African neighbor resembles a piece of chalk, and objects fly around the cabin, then the most important thing you should do is not to panic (although at the first moment it does not cover except that the dead and Jason Statham). Get a grip on yourself and do this.

1. Strictly follow the commands of the flight attendants and do not try to take the initiative

"The crew members are passing special training and obviously they know better than you how to act in emergency situations, - explains Andrey Legoshin, world-class rescuer. - Surely you read, slept or flirted with a pretty neighbor while the stewardess explained how to put on life jackets and showed you where the emergency exits are. Now she will repeat everything - do only what she says.

Keep in mind: it was precisely the carefully listened to safety instructions that saved the lives of four passengers of the Samoan Boeing 707 in 1974, which fell several hundred meters from the runway of Pago Pago Airport and soon caught fire. To save these smart people took advantage of the emergency exits to the wing, while the other 97 passengers staged a crush, rushing to the traditional entrance-exit. As a result, the almost completely burned-out plane became a mass grave - the investigation showed that most passengers would have been saved if they had simply been aware of where the emergency hatches were.

2. In case of decompression put on an oxygen mask

The fact that the cabin is depressurized, you will understand by the sound of air leaving through a hole in the skin - a terrible roar will drown out even the screams of your neighbors. Well, by the fact that from somewhere on top an oxygen mask suddenly falls on you - immediately put it on (just put it on, and not just press it to your face). Get ready for a sharp drop in altitude - this is how pilots deal with decompression, at an altitude below 3 thousand meters the oxygen content in the air becomes more or less normal. Here, an effect is possible that happens when an aircraft enters a turbulence zone - with an unexpected loss of altitude by several tens of meters per second, loose things and unfastened passengers can fly up to the ceiling, and then fall on your head. Nothing funny: On December 28, 1997, a passenger on a United Airlines plane that fell into a turbulence zone was killed by a portable tape recorder that landed on her head. All other passengers on this flight made it to their destination normally.

14 hours waiting for the arrival of rescuers, thirteen-year-old Bakary Baya, a passenger of the Airbus A-310-324 of the Yemenia airline, which collapsed in Indian Ocean near the Comoros on June 30, 2009. A life jacket helped the girl stay on the water, and, apart from hypothermia, she did not receive a single injury.

3. Remove all sharp and hard objects from your pockets.

A pen, keys, an electronic cigarette, a hairbrush - all these items have no place in your clothes if you do not want them to end up in your liver or, God forbid, your groin after a blow.

4. Get everything off your neck

Tie, scarf, jewelry on a chain - all this can catch on anything and simply suffocate you. Take off your glasses, if you wear them, so that when you hit your face, you won’t be left without an eye, which, you see, will greatly complicate the process of your salvation. And if you took off your shoes before the start of the flight, be sure to return your shoes to your feet - it is quite possible that you will have to walk on broken glass, hot metal or burning plastic.

5. Get ready to hit the ground

Make sure your seatbelt is fastened, group up: plant your feet firmly on the footboard in front of you, cover your head with your hands and bend over so that you lie face down on your knees. This way you will avoid serious injury. internal organs and protect your head from a blow. Take this advice seriously, as 9-year-old Dutchman Ruben van Assou did on May 12, 2010 aboard an Airbus-330-202 that crashed while landing at the airport in the Libyan capital Tripoli. As the boy himself later said, he did not unfasten his seat belt during the entire flight, and when it became clear that the plane was falling, he suddenly remembered a plot from a TV show that told how to behave in a plane crash. As a result, Ruben escaped with only simple fractures of both legs, while his parents, older brother and 108 other people on board died.

6. Protect your respiratory organs

If the plane did not explode after hitting the ground, your task is not to lose consciousness and, if a fire starts, not to suffocate. Immediately cover your nose and mouth with a piece of any matter (the scarf and tie removed in paragraph 4 will do) and try to go down as low as possible - run on all fours to the emergency exit, because the smoke collects at the ceiling of the cabin.

7. Spit on things

It is unlikely that you value your life at the cost of a thirty-year-old Macallan bought in duty free or an iPad with an unpassed level. Angry Birds. Leave everything, you have one or two minutes to leave the plane.

8. Protect yourself from fire by throwing on outer clothing or wrapping yourself in a blanket that is issued on airplanes.

“But there is an important nuance here,” says Andrey Legoshin. - Check what the blanket is made of. If from synthetics, then under the influence high temperature the blanket will begin to melt and stick to the body tightly. A woolen blanket is the best protection against fire; in many planes they give out just such. And in no case should you douse yourself with water before overcoming the flame, as movie heroes do. At a huge temperature, the water will instantly boil and you will simply be boiled alive.

The worst plane crash in world history took place on the ground. On March 27, 1977, due to a series of controller and pilot errors, two Boeing-747s (KLM and Pan American) were unable to share the runway at Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife. Of the 630 passengers and 23 crew members, 583 people died, and 12 of the survivors went mad.

9. Take your time to the ground

If you jumped out through the emergency exit to the wing, and there is no emergency ladder here, don’t jump down in shock, it’s still almost three meters high. Fall on your stomach and slide off the wing feet first.

10. If the plane is waiting for a splashdown in the future, put on a life jacket

The airplane is able to stay afloat from ten to forty minutes, even with some damage to the fuselage. If the flight attendant is lost somewhere and you decide to open the emergency exit door yourself, first find out if your part of the aircraft is under water: depending on the model, the aircraft remain buoyant either in a horizontal position or warped, with a tail or nose sticking out of the water . “And don’t even think about inflating your life jacket until you get out of the plane,” Legoshin warns. "You can't squeeze through the doorway." Once in the water, look out for life rafts that inflate automatically. Climbing or at least clinging to one of them, wait for help.

People live!

The record holder of the Guinness Book of Records was the 22-year-old Yugoslav stewardess Vesna Vulovich.

On January 26, 1972, after the explosion of a JAT airliner, she fell from a height of 10,160 m and escaped with several serious but curable injuries. Vesna was saved by a chain of accidents: at the moment of the explosion, she lost consciousness, which saved her from death as a result of a lack of oxygen; the tail of the plane, where she was, fell into the trees, which softened the blow; Vulovich spent many years in the athletics hall - a flexible, trained body more easily endured a meeting with the ground; not far from the crash site was the hunter Bruno Honke, who quickly discovered the girl. According to doctors, Vulovich should be thanked for his salvation and the dead passengers - the corpses of people who were with her in a crowded tail section also cushioned the impact on the ground.

After 27 days of coma and a year and a half of treatment, Vulovich returned to JAT to the position of manager for drafting cargo contracts - the doctors forbade her to fly after the plane crash, despite the absence of direct contraindications and the girl’s desire to continue working as a flight attendant. According to an unofficial version, the highest officials of Yugoslavia considered that not a single sane person would agree to board the plane in the company of Vulovich.

RISK STATISTICS

1.5 thousand people on average die annually in air crashes around the world, despite the fact that the total volume of air travel is over 5 billion tickets. It turns out that on average, death threatens one of the 3.3 million passengers.

Many people believe that a plane crash leaves little chance of survival. Therefore, they do not consider it necessary to carefully study the safety instructions. Although, for example, the crash of the Boeing 777 of the South Korean airline Asiana Airlines proves that if the rules of evacuation are followed, the number of victims can be significantly reduced. In what happened in international airport The San Francisco crash managed to save 305 of the 307 people on board!

We have already talked about how you can increase your chances of surviving a plane crash. But for a special occasion, here are a few more rules that you can follow to be more likely to survive a plane crash.

1. Consider a travel suit

Going on a trip, choose clothes so that you are most comfortable in it in case of an emergency. Here's what Cynthia Corbett, an employee, advises Federal Office Civil Aviation USA (author's note: FAA, Federal Aviation Administration, FAA):

Imagine running out of a burning plane. For example, do not wear shoes on high heels or light slippers - it is inconvenient to run in them. It is important that during emergency situations, shoes do not fall off your feet, and open surfaces of the body are protected by a dense fabric, like denim.

Long sleeves and pants can protect against shrapnel and burns: according to experts from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), 68% of the victims are fires that occur after accidents.

2. Choose a seat in the cabin when buying a ticket

According to Popular Mechanics magazine, the safest seats are in the tail section of the cabin. Analyzing air crashes lethal outcome that have occurred over the past 40 years, experts cite the following statistics: on average, those sitting in the back of the cabin are 40% more likely to survive. Also try to position yourself close to the emergency exit and closer to the aisle.

Professor Ed Galea, a fire safety specialist at the University of Greenwich in England, found that surviving passengers usually sit within five rows of emergency exits:

During an emergency, it is better to sit closer to the aisle than at the porthole or in the middle.

3. Takeoff and landing

Experts say that the most dangerous time- the first three minutes after takeoff and eight minutes before landing: force majeure occurs more often at these stages of flight - at this time it is better not to take off your shoes and not lose sight of the two nearest emergency exits. hand luggage place it under the seat of the passenger sitting in front - it will help to avoid injuries, as it will not allow you to slip under the seat in front, because leg fractures are quite common among victims of air crashes.

If a crash or emergency landing is unavoidable, stay calm and don't panic. Take the so-called “survival position”: with your palms crossed, put them on the back of the seat in front, then press your forehead to your palms - this is more likely to survive in an accident, but if there is no front seat, lean forward and hug your knees with your hands.

Also remove all sharp and angular objects like pens and keys from your pockets: in emergency conditions, even a regular comb can cause harm.

4. The 90 second rule

Remember, if after the plane crash you can leave the cabin within 90 seconds, the chances of escape increase significantly: some passengers in a state of panic are not even able to unfasten their seat belt - their bodies are then found sitting in chairs.

In an interview with WebMD, Cynthia Corbett said:

It is important to know how to behave in an emergency, even if there are no instructions from the crew: it happens that people just sit and wait to be told what to do, and the situation worsens in the meantime.

In the accident with Flight 217, most of the victims were avoided because the victims were able to quickly evacuate from the aircraft. John Hansman, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and head of the University's International Air Transportation Center, says:

If someone had hesitated, things could have been much worse.

And Corbett adds:

Do not try to find and collect your luggage, this can take valuable time.

5. No more dangerous than subway escalators

Transportation safety experts are reassuring: according to NTSB statistics (author's note: National Transportation Safety Board), only one in 1.2 million commercial flights has an accident. Aircraft crews are carefully working out measures to prevent various emergency situations, new safe non-toxic materials and more advanced fire-fighting systems of winged vehicles are being created.

The chance of dying in a plane crash is 1 in 11,000,000, while, for example, in a car accident - 1 in 5,000, so now it is much safer for a person to fly than drive a car.

John Hansman states:

Being on board an airliner, you risk no more than going down the subway on an escalator.

Cynthia Corbett of the US Federal Aviation Administration summarizes:

I believe that air travel is the most safe way movement. But during the flight, we must not forget about safety and the rules of conduct on board. Do not be afraid to fly, just follow the instructions clearly.