Originally Posted by dlish

...i know that theres only a very small chance of survival...

Originally Posted by The Daily Beast

Even if you somehow ended up in a plane crash—a remarkably unlikely if—your chances of dying are unbelievably small. Believe it or not, the survival rate in plane crashes is 95.7 percent. Yes, 95.7. More precisely, the National Transportation Safety Board analyzed all the airplane accidents between 1983 and 2000. Some 53,487 people were involved in those incidents, and 51,207 survived. Hence, the survival rate of 95.7. The safety board judged twenty-six of the accidents to be the worst, meaning that they involved fire, injuries, or substantial damage. Excluding those in which no one had a chance, the survival rate in the most “serious” accidents was 76.6 percent. This means that even in bad crashes, more than three-quarters of the passengers survive. “Contrary to public perception,” the board concluded, “the most likely outcome of an accident is that most of the occupants survived.”...

...consider the facts. According to the European Transport Safety Council, 40 percent of the fatalities in plane crashes around the world occur in situations that are actually survivable. In other words, out of an average of fifteen hundred total fatalities, some six hundred people die in accidents where they might have lived. The question is: Why? Broadly speaking, the planes are well made—the safety equipment is good—the standards are high. Of course, there are plenty of improvements that would make airplanes even safer (like air bags, three-point safety harnesses, and rear-facing seats). But in survivable crashes, the experts say, it all comes down to human factors and what you do—or don’t do—to save yourself.