On Thursday (June 12), an Air India Boeing 787 aircraft crashed, resulting in the deaths of 241 passengers on board, with the only survivor being a passenger in seat 11A. So, which seats are considered safest on an airplane according to aviation experts?
Local time on Thursday afternoon, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed and caught fire in a residential area in India just a few seconds after takeoff. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British passenger, was seated in an emergency exit window seat towards the rear of the business class section.
According to experts in aviation, if a fully loaded aircraft crashes in a densely populated area, it is almost impossible for anyone to survive.
“In this accident, I think it is simply a miracle that someone survived, because from a technical point of view, this accident was most likely one from which no one could survive,” said Professor Edwin Galea, Head of Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) at the University of Greenwich, to The Telegraph.
“While we don’t know enough about this yet, when a fully fueled plane crashes in a densely built-up area, we aren’t likely to see any survivors,” he said.
Professor Galea’s 2006 study found that in air disasters where survival is possible, passengers within five rows of an emergency exit are more likely to survive. Those seated farther from the emergency exit than this distance, even if they survive the impact, are more likely to end up dead than to survive.
He mentioned that no seat on an airplane can guarantee maximum safety. For example, it is often said that the rear of the plane is safer, but the safety of any seat depends on the nature of the crash and cannot be generalized as a rule of thumb.
According to Time magazine’s analysis of data from the Federal Aviation Administration in 2015, the death rate is lowest in the back third of the aircraft, but survival rates vary depending on the nature of the crash and the position where the aircraft absorbs the impact.
“It entirely depends on the dynamics of the crash,” said Daniel Kwasi Adjekum, an aviation safety researcher at the University of North Dakota, to Live Science magazine.
“Therefore, the seat position is crucial for structural survival,” Adjekum said.
“If you believe the media reports, the survivor of the Air India crash was in seat 11A, right next to exit 2 on the 787-8 aircraft,” Professor Galea told The Telegraph, “So he was seated closest to the emergency exit. It couldn’t be any closer.”
“The exit was right beside him, he was actually seated in seat A, the window seat. You could touch the door by stretching your hand because you were too close to it,” he said.
A study conducted by the University of Greenwich in 2008 found that sitting within five rows of an emergency exit increases passengers’ chances of survival because they can evacuate the aircraft more quickly.
Professor Galea told The Telegraph that the seats of the cabin crew, who were seated almost directly across from Ramesh, are actually the safest on the plane because they are more robust and equipped with full restraints to restrict excessive movement of passengers. Crew training focuses on evacuating all passengers within 90 seconds, with food and beverage service being secondary skills.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner has eight exits, each with at least one crew member on duty.
Another advantage of seat 11A is that it is located within the aircraft’s sturdy “wing box,” the strongest part of the aircraft.
“The strongest part of the aircraft is the section where the fuselage meets the wing, known as the wing box. It is where the wing is connected to the fuselage. This is the strongest part of the aircraft because it is the most structurally complex,” Professor Galea added.
“And I believe seat 11A is located towards the front of the strongest part of the aircraft. This might also be a factor,” he said.
Professor John McDermid from the University of York also told The Telegraph that seat selection could be crucial, as it is a seat above the wing, where the structural strength is higher.
“Furthermore, being close to an exit means you can evacuate quickly, significantly increasing the chances of surviving in case of a fire,” he told The Telegraph.
According to reported by Live Science, Cheng-Lung Wu, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales Aviation Academy, stated, “There is no one-size-fits-all answer.” However, he pointed out that seats near the wing offer greater structural protection.
Thus, despite Mr. Ramesh having all these favorable factors, perhaps luck is the biggest advantage.
“He had a lot of luck as well,” Professor Galea said. “Why did he survive while the persons in seats 11B, 11C, or 12A next to him did not?”
Although a fatal accident occurred on Thursday, air travel is still one of the safest modes of transportation.
According to a study in Aviation Transport Management Magazine in 2024, the probability of death on a commercial flight in the United States is approximately 1 in 13.7 million.
The National Transportation Safety Board recorded that in 94% of major commercial plane accidents between 2001 and 2017, the survival rate of survivors reached 94%.
According to Time magazine’s research, which reviewed data from the Federal Aviation Administration over 35 years, passengers seated in the middle of the cabin by the aisle fared the worst, with a death rate as high as 44%.
The cause of Thursday’s fatal accident is under investigation, which also resulted in 41 injuries on the ground.