Stuff You Should Know - How to Survive a Plane Crash

Episode Date: December 25, 2008

Although you're much more likely to die in an auto accident, odds are you're more afraid of flying -- but why? Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to find out. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jackmove or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, welcome to the podcast. This is Stuff You Should Know, and I'm Josh Clark, and that's Chuck Bryant. Right, Chuck? That's a very formal introduction, Josh. I like it. Should I loosen

up a little bit, man? You're good. Chuck, remember we were talking about like the worst way to die in a podcast, several podcasts back? Uh-huh. And I said, for me, the worst way to die would be a plane crash. Right. Because you're on your way down, and you're fully aware the whole time, probably, of what's about to happen. I can't think of anything worse than dying in a plane crash. Right, personally. With a bunch of strangers. Yeah. You know, you don't want to die with people you don't know. No way. Okay, so one of the reasons I said that was because I've had a terrible experience on a plane, and nothing really untoward happened, like there wasn't a lot of turbulence or anything like that. But I found out the hard way that I'm actually afraid of flying. Okay.

Most of the time when I fly, it's to, you know, if I fly at all, it's to Europe or to Mexico or something like that, right? So it's a long flight. Okay. I'll take a colada pin and, you know, drink some scotch and then that's it. I wake up and I'm where I'm supposed to be. Yeah. It's like a time travel machine to you. Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. So, and it works like a champ, right? But the thing is, is I'm never conscious or at the very least cognizant or, you know, doing anything but drooling the whole way. Right. You're that guy. Right. Well, on the way back actually from Mexico, we had a layover in Miami. I had no pharmaceuticals and didn't have, I think it was a cash flight, cash bar flight. I didn't have any money. Yeah. What's the point? I just shelled out like half

of my life savings for this flight from Miami to Atlanta and you can't give me liquor for free, right? Right. All right. So anyway, this, this perfect storm of horribleness transpires and I'm in the air and all the way from Miami to Atlanta, I'm just completely convinced over and over again the plane's about to go down, right? And I was actually looking up how fear works, right? Right. And I found out that when you have a fear response, there's two things going on. Okay. Number one is this real quick knee jerk reaction that alerted you to danger and our old friend the fighter flights and fighter flight response perks up. And then you've got a more thoughtful process that takes a little longer. That's really analyzing context and stuff like that. And then if it,

if it, if it concludes you're not in danger, it tells your, your hypothalamus to settle down. Be rational. Right. Okay. And then you calm down. Right. But this kept happening over and over and over again. So for three hours, it was like every 20 seconds, I was cresting the hill of a roller coaster. Wow. It was one of the worst things that ever happened to me. So a lesson learned as far as I'm concerned, I'll never travel unprepared again. But, but it turns out from what I understand that the chances of me actually going down in a plane, this isn't, these facts and figures don't make me feel any better at all. But, but rationally speaking, I have a very little chance of going down in a plane, don't I? Yeah. About you want to know the number? Are you speculating? No, no,

no, I know that you know, I was setting you up right there. Yeah. That's a good one. I appreciate that. You're welcome. Your chances of dying or I'm sorry, I'm dying. Your chances of even being involved in an airline crash are one in 11 million. And when you compare that to your chances of actually being killed in a car, and this is the one you always hear airline versus car or one in 5,000. But for some reason, I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm not driving the plane. So I have no control over it in a car. It's, I can maybe steer my way out of it. Do you think that's what it is? Well, that's one of the big reasons. It's not me thinking this. It's, you know, people study this and the lack of control has a huge part at place, as well as the fact that negative bias.

So a plane crash gets a lot, a lot of coverage. So it seems like they're dropping out of the sky with regularity, because they don't, you know, cover the news. The news doesn't cover car crashes like it does my crash. No, you're definitely not going to see that on the NBC Nightly News. No, that's true. I've got, I've got another, another way of looking at it with numbers. Okay. Do you know you would have to fly on an airline every day for 35,000 years to be guaranteed that you're going to be in a plane crash? That isn't to become inevitable. That is an awesome, awesome step. That one came from airdisaster.com. And that is a site that I would never recommend anyone go to if you have a fear of flying. Yeah, or if you don't, because you

soon will. Yeah, exactly. I like to fly. And it doesn't freak me out at all. Actually, I don't like to fly. I hate to fly, but it has nothing to do with fear of crashing. What is just the long process of it? Yeah, the process and taking off your shoes and dirty. I hate that and being stuck on the plane next to people and touching strangers and people are obnoxious and the smells and I hate it, man. So you're not a club rubber, huh? You don't like touching strangers? No. No. Okay. All right. Well, good to know. Is he a little by little club rubber? I've never heard that. Oh, I'll explain it later. Okay. So, okay. Well, all right. We understand that there's very little chance that you're going to get into a plane wreck, right? But they still happen. It does happen.

Some people have a much closer relationship with fate and coincidence and chance than others. So let's say one of our listeners finds himself or herself in a plane that's going down. Right. There's some things that you may or may not want to do. And actually, before you even board, when you're booking a ticket, you may, there's some stuff you want to take into consideration, right? Very true. Well, like what? Well, before we get to that real quick, people should know just because you're playing crashes doesn't mean you'll die either. You're so reassuring. I know. In fact, between 1980 and 2000, there were 568 crashes in the US and more than 90% of them survived. That's crazy. Most of these, I have to say this,

were takeoff and landing crashes, but of the 26 extreme crashes, and I think that means you're at 33,000 feet and then you go to zero feet, you have more than 50% chance of surviving that even. I would lose my mind. Yeah. I would lose my mind as I was walking away from that. You would. So having said that, if you are on a plane and you're a fan of ours and you're going down, we feel very bad for you. But for future you, for future, unless you're actually listening to this on a plane that's going down, if so, hats off to you. Right. You've really achieved the, you know, trifecta. I don't know what the other two things are, but they're the other one. The first thing most people want to find out about is there a safest seat?

Yeah. And is there? Well, it depends on who you ask. If you ask the FAA, their official stance is no, there's not a safest seat. Well, sure. Exactly. That's what I think is they can't really say that because people be like, I'm not sitting there. Exactly. I don't want to sit in anything but the safe seat. Exactly. This is a death seat. But people study this stuff like you wouldn't believe in popular mechanics. Great magazine did a study and over 36 year period, they studied data of plane crashes, commercial jet crashes in the United States and passengers in the rear of a plane are in fact, by their data, 40% more likely to survive than those in toward the front of the plane.

It's pretty significant. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess any of you guys out there who are about to book plane tickets, look for the back of the plane. Look for the back of the plane. Let all the people who don't listen to this podcast die. Right. People like sitting up front, though, because you get the D board. Is D board? Is that a word? Disembark. Disembark off the plane quicker. And no one likes standing in that long line or everyone. Yeah. But man, if you're stuck down, they also die. Which one is it? You know, you have to hear buh-bye, buh-bye like a few more times than the people in the front, but you're going to survive as the plane goes down. True. So I've got some tips for you though. If you're on a plane before

the crash ever happens, there's a few things you can do to improve your chances. Yeah. You ready? Yes. And this is something I actually, after I wrote this article, I started doing this stuff. Did you really? Oh yeah, man. Definitely. I mean, I'm not a, I don't believe in bad luck and jinxes, but I thought I was jinxed. Really? I wrote this. Yeah. I'm the guy that wrote the article and then I'm going to be the one ironically that bearishes, you know, from 33,000 feet. So once you're on board, get to your seat, find the exit row. This is a no-brainer, but here's a little trick. What you want to do is you want to count how many rows are between you and the exit row and submit that number in your head, even if you're hopped up on pharmaceuticals and scotch.

So if you count 11 rows to the exit row, a lot of times you might be in the dark, you might be underwater. You know, think about that. You can feel the seats and feel one, two, three, four, five up through 11. And then, you know, you take a left or a right and you're at your exit. Right. And don't be misled by, you know, a detached arm. You know, if you're in the dark, know the difference between a detached arm and a plain seat. Right. I did not put that tip in the article I should have. In 1980, cocaine was captivating and corrupting Miami. Miami had become the murder capital of the United States. They were making millions of dollars. I would categorize it as the Wild Wild West. Unleashing a wave of violence. My God,

took a walk into the devil's den. The carcels, they just killed everybody that was home. They start pulling out pictures of Clay Williams' body taken out in the Everglades. A world orbiting around a mysterious man with a controversial claim. This drug pilot by the name of Lamora Chester. He never ran anything but grass until I turned over that load of coke to him on the island. Chester would claim he did it all for this CIA. Pulling many into a sprawling federal investigation. So, Clay wasn't the only person who was murdered? Oh, no, not by a long shot. I'm Lauren Bright-Pacheco. Join me for Murder in Miami. Listen to Murder in Miami on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2,200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs, of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty, exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just, like, looting? Are they just, like, pillaging? They just have way better names for

what they call, like, what we would call a jack move, or being robbed. They call civil acid work. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The crash position has changed over the years, and not a lot of people know this. Yeah, what's the deal? Did you get an impression of why the crash position changed? Well, my hope is that it's to make it more likely that you'll survive. Well, yeah. I doubt if there weren't politics or money behind it, or anything like that. But I think you used to put your head between your legs and cover your, between your knees and cover your head. Now, that's not true. What you're supposed to do is, you're supposed to extend your arms, put your hands, cross your hands over each

other, and put them against the seat, the seat back in front of you. And then put your head against the back of your hands. So you've got your arms stretched out and pressed against the seat in front of you and your head resting on the back of your hands. That's the new official crash position. Yeah. Now, I could actually see the lobby of the InFlight Magazine Publishers Association having that changed. You know, you're going down like, wow, I can get that for that cheap. I want to know who does the artwork on those things. It's awesome. It's always the same. And there's like, there's probably one dude in Vermont that does all that artwork. For what? For the, the InFlight little brochure you get. Oh, the calmest Hindu cows people, the graphics. I love

that, that drawing. But yeah, it's very standard. Sure. Here's a little tip for you. Before you get on the plane, you should dress appropriately. And it sounds silly if you're going to Maui, you want to have on your Hawaiian shirt and your flip flops. But during a, after a plane crash, there's glass everywhere. There's jet fuel. There's fire. You're going to want to be covered. So you should never wear open-toed shoes. You should wear long sleeves and long sleeve shirt as well. Yeah, it makes sense. If you're smart. Many people won't heed this advice. So because like I said, they want to be comfy on, you know, the transcontinental flights. If you, if you have a family, family, say you and your wife have like three kids, three or four kids, and you're getting on the plane,

you want to divide the responsibility up between the parents. Sure. Because it's a lot harder for one like the father to try and wrangle four family members and you might get separated. So dad's in charge of little Timmy and Johnny and mom's in charge of Sue and Jane. Yeah. And if you, if you have a lazy spouse, you may want to reconsider flying as a family. That's a good idea. Because everything may be on your shoulders. Yeah. And listen, and this is a big one, listen to the pre-flight instructions. I know that's typically, I guess you're trying to get your scotch. I'm annoyed with the people on both sides of myself. Yeah. But this is when you need to be listening because all planes are different and there actually are some variations

and instruction, depending on what kind of yeah, I never knew that actually. Yeah. I thought it was all the same. So it's good advice. No. And if the oxygen mass drops, you know, you're in trouble, put it on yourself first. And if you love your wife more than life itself, you may have an instinct to put it on her, but you have to save yourself first before you can save anyone else is the general thinking. Wow. Yeah. So those are, those are future Darwinistic, that last one. Yeah. Save yourself. Save yourself so you can save others. Right. Okay. Well, Chuck, as you were saying, there, there's a substantial percentage of people who are in serious crashes that have survived, right? And one of them was one, one specific one was made into a movie, one plane

crash, right? Yeah. What was it called? Survive? You talking about the alive? Yes. There's some I've, I think it's alive. Okay. The Uruguayan rugby team. Uh-huh. You want to tell them about that? I well thought you were. Oh, okay. Well, actually, this is your favorite, this is your favorite story. It's a great story. And it's great movie to actually this, this Uruguayan soccer team probably should have known or rugby team. I'm sorry. Yeah. They probably should have known they were on a plane for Chile. And they were in the Andes Mountains, which is like just the, they should call these things the widow makers. Yeah, there's a lot of crashes there. Yeah. And it was Friday, October 13th, which if there's a day to not fly, it's that day. Why is that?

Friday the 13th in October, that's a bad day. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's good. Sorry. Sure. Yeah. Okay. So they're playing goes down, right? There's 45 people on board. It's not just the rugby team, but there's, there's some others. And basically for I think 72 days, wow, the survivors, some of them slowly died off. I think 12 initially died in the crash. And then over the course of time, another 10 died over the next 72 days, right? They didn't have any food or anything. So they, they ended up very famously resorting to cannibalism, right, which is where they were, they were finally fine. Yeah. Well, you know, I love cannibalism. And yeah, the movie was alive, made in 1993. We hear rumors that there may be a follow up documentary about it coming.

They're unsubstantiated, but keep an eye out for it. I think there has been a previous documentary at some point too. Well, yeah, well, they just had like some, some reunion, I believe, what was the maybe 25th reunion or something or the 35th, 35th reunion, because a lot of these guys are still alive. Oh yeah. And they, they reunited for, you know, I don't want to ever be around you people again tour. Right. Exactly. All right. But okay. So what other, what other things can you do to, you know, maybe stay alive besides cannibalism, unless you're forced to resort to it? Right. Well, let's say your plane is crashed and you're on the ground. The first 90 seconds is vital. The golden, what? They call that golden time. Okay. And airlines are responsible for getting

everyone off in those 90 seconds. That's the goal. Okay. For the airline industry. So that's what you really need to be concerned about. There's going to be fire potentially, jet fuel, nasty stuff burning. So you want to get down low, because the fumes from this stuff is more likely to kill you than being burned. Sure. Yeah. I mean, what are airplane seat covers made of? Yeah, exactly. Not good stuff. Nothing you want to put in your pipe and smoke. So, you know, you've got all this nasty toxic stuff in the air. So you want to get low, just like they teach you at home, you know, stop, drop and roll. Yeah. I think that's if you're on fire. Yeah. But they teach you to get down to go under the smoke. Right. Same principle here. In 1980, cocaine was

captivating and corrupting Miami. Miami had become the murder capital of the United States. They were making millions of dollars. I would categorize it as the Wild Wild West. Unleashing a wave of violence. My God, talking about walking into the devil's den. The car sales, they just killed everybody that was home. They start pulling out pictures of Clay William's body taken out in the Everglades. A world orbiting around a mysterious man with a controversial claim. This drug pilot by the name of Lamora Chester. He never ran anything but grass until I turned over that load of coke to him on the island. Chester would claim he did it all for the CIA. Pulling many into a sprawling federal investigation. So Clay wasn't the only person

who was murdered? Oh, no, not by a long shot. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Join me for Murder in Miami. Listen to Murder in Miami on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2,200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs, of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm a prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly.

And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. Cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. If you do make it off the plane, which is the ideal scenario, you want to get the heck away from there because it could blow up. It could, you know, any number of things could happen. So you want to get as far away from the plane as you can safely and get behind something. If there's something there, there's, you know, a huge rock or a big tree. I mean, you just want to try and shield yourself in case there's a big explosion.

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And do not, do not try and get your baggage off your carry-on bags. It's good. What if you have your pet on board? Oh boy, you're asking the wrong guy. I would try and save my pet. Sure. But they say no matter what it is, leave it behind. It's not worth it. Yeah. And man, I didn't, I wasn't anticipating that. You really caught me off guard there. Sure. Yeah. Luckily, my pets don't fly. So I want to ever have to deal with that. They also say don't drink. I saw that. And I was, no, I just can't. Okay. Well, I can't. I can't fly normal. Right. Yeah. So that makes sense. I don't like to drink aboard a flight. It kind of, I don't know, I don't like it. So about the pressure and maybe it's the expense and those

little bottles. I just, I don't get it. I love those little bottles. They also say not to inflate your life vest until you're outside the cabin because yeah, it can restrict your movement. Which you don't want when you're running out of a plane on fire. No, you don't want to be at the exit and then your life vest gets hung on the seat before the explosion. Yeah. And I think that's about all the tips I have for you. Well, you know, I do have one more thing, Chuck. What's up? People who survive plane crashes actually tend to score better on emotional quotient tests, things like post-traumatic symptoms than people who have not been in plane crashes. They actually score significantly higher. There was a 1999 Old Dominion University study

of 15 crash survivors across the United States. And these people just basically had a more positive outlook on life and didn't show the signs of stress. Like these people who served as the control group who flew, I think five times a year or more and who'd never been in a plane crash. That makes sense. Yeah, it makes sense. They theorized that it was because they'd been through this huge ordeal and they kind of learned not to sweat the small stuff. Yeah, seriously. It makes sense, doesn't it? Yeah. And people, again, who had shown control, who were in control, like you were suggesting, they actually had the highest score of all. If they thought of themselves of having stayed in control or maybe helped somebody off the plane, apparently you

just cannot have a better outlook on life than if you've helped someone off a burning plane when you survived a plane crash. Wow. Let's seek it out. I wish I knew what that feeling kind of felt like. Yeah, kind of. But at the same time, kind of like... Kind of not. Yeah, exactly. There's just one more quickie, Josh. We will never let these listeners go. I would be remiss if I didn't say that try to stay calm. That's the number one thing you can do. Because panic, people can't even unbuckle their seatbelt many times because they're in such a state of panic. And stay calm. Yeah. If you can. Chuck, you may have just saved some lives. Wow. You should feel good about yourself. Well, you know, if you have any plane crash survivors that survived because of my advice,

please let me know. And I might feel like that guy that saved the person from the burning. Yeah. Talking about a positive outlook on life. And before we let you go, let us just give you a little peek at what Chuck and I think is the coolest article on the site. It's called Do We Really Get Wiser With Age? Yeah. It is by our colleague writer Molly Edmonds, who's just a dynamo. And her article is super cool, too. She is a dynamo, too. She really is. And her article is super cool, too. So both Chuck and I give that one the thumbs up and strongly recommend it. And you can find that article, How to Survival Plane Crash. Chuck's written a whole slew of survival articles. And you can find them all by typing some clever words into the search bar

at HowStuffWorks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit HowStuffWorks.com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at HowStuffWorks.com. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff, stuff that'll piss you off. The cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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