The only survivor of the tragic Air India crash, which claimed the lives of 241 passengers, was seated in 11A. Interestingly, aviation experts don’t usually regard this seat as one of the safest on a plane.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British passenger, was in the emergency exit seat just behind business class when the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed in flames in a residential area of India shortly after takeoff on Thursday afternoon.
After the crash, Ramesh was seen limping through Ahmedabad, surrounded by the wreckage and the remains of other passengers on board the doomed flight to London.
Despite his survival, studies indicate that the middle seats, especially towards the back of the plane, generally offer better odds in a crash. Data analyzed by Time Magazine in 2015 revealed that the rear of the aircraft had the lowest mortality rate, although survival can depend heavily on the specifics of the incident, including how the aircraft absorbs the impact.
Daniel Kwasi Ajekum, an aviation safety researcher from the University of North Dakota, mentioned, “It all depends on the dynamics of the crash,” emphasizing that structural integrity at the point of impact is critical for survival.
Statistics show that passengers seated in aisle seats in the central section had a fatality rate of 44%, based on a review of 35 years of FAA data.
On the other hand, a 2008 study from the University of Greenwich noted that being within five rows of an emergency exit significantly boosts survival chances, facilitating quicker evacuation.
Chen Long Wu, a professor at the University of New South Wales, echoed this, noting that seats near the wings offer more structural protection.
Even with the catastrophic events of Thursday, flying remains one of the safest travel options. The risk of dying in a commercial flight in the U.S. is about 1 in 13.7 million, according to a 2024 survey published in the Journal of Air Transport Management.
Moreover, the National Traffic Safety Commission has recorded that from 2001 to 2017, 94% of major passenger jet accidents had complete survival rates.
Currently, the cause of the unfortunate crash, which also injured 41 individuals on the ground, is under investigation.
