I've always wondered what people experience in a falling plane. Summarizing the experience of eyewitnesses who survived plane crashes, one interesting conclusion can be drawn - the devil is not so terrible as he is painted ...

First, be more afraid when you drive to the airport. In 2014, more than 33 million flights were made in the world, there were 21 air crashes (moreover, most of the trouble in the sky falls on cargo transportation), in which only 990 people died. Those. the probability of a plane crash is only 0.0001%. In the same year, 26,963 people died in traffic accidents in Russia alone, and according to WHO, 1.2 million people die in road accidents and about 50 million are injured annually in the world.

Secondly, judging by the statistics, you have a much greater chance of dying on an escalator in the subway or contracting AIDS than dying on an airplane. So 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 to fly than drive a car. Moreover, every year aviation technology becomes safer. By the way, Africa remains the most unfavorable continent in terms of flight safety: only 3% of all flights in the world are operated here, but 43% of air crashes have occurred!

Thirdly, with strong overloads, you will not remember anything According to research by the Interstate Aviation Committee, the consciousness of a person in a falling plane is turned off. In most cases - in the first seconds of the fall. At the moment of impact with the ground there is not a single person in the cabin who would be conscious. As they say, a protective reaction of the body is triggered. This thesis is confirmed by those who managed to survive in plane crashes. Silence also accompanies minor air incidents, a selection of videos

Fourth, the experience of surviving plane crashes. The story of Larisa Savitskaya is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. In 1981, at an altitude of 5220 meters, the An-24 aircraft in which she was flying collided with a military bomber. 37 people died in that crash. Only Larisa managed to survive.

I was then 20 years old, - says Larisa Savitskaya. - Volodya, my husband, and I flew from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Blagoveshchensk. I fell asleep immediately after takeoff. And woke up from the roar and screams. His face was cold. Then I was told that our plane had its wings cut off and the roof blown off. But I don't remember the sky above my head. I remember it was foggy, like in a bathhouse. I looked at Volodya. He didn't move. Blood splattered across his face. I knew right away that he was dead. And prepared to die too. Then the plane broke up, and I lost consciousness. When she came to herself, she was surprised that she was still alive. I felt like I was lying on something hard. It turned out to be in the aisle between the chairs. And near the whistling abyss. There were no thoughts in my head. Fear too. In the state I was in - between sleep and reality - there is no fear. The only thing that came to mind was an episode from an Italian film where a girl, after a plane crash, soared in the sky among the clouds, and then, having fallen into the jungle, remained alive. I didn't expect to survive. I just wanted to die without pain. I noticed the crossbars of the metal floor. And I thought: if I fall sideways, it will be very painful. I decided to change position and regroup. Then she crawled to the next row of chairs (our row stood near the break), sat down in a chair, clutched the armrests and rested her feet on the floor. All this was done automatically. Then I look - the earth. Very close. She grabbed the armrests with all her might and pushed herself away from the chair. Then - like a green explosion from larch branches. And again a memory failure. When I woke up, I saw my husband again. Volodya sat with his hands on his knees and looked at me with a fixed gaze. It was raining, which washed the blood from his face, and I saw a huge wound on his forehead. Under the armchairs lay a dead man and woman...

Later it was established that a piece of the plane - four meters long and three wide, on which Savitskaya fell, planned like an autumn leaf. He fell into a soft marshy clearing. Larisa lay unconscious for seven hours. Then for two more days I sat in a chair in the rain and waited for death to come. On the third day I got up, started looking for people and came across a search party. Larisa received several injuries, a concussion, a broken arm and five cracks in her spine. You can't go with these injuries. But Larisa refused the stretcher and reached the helicopter herself.

The plane crash and the death of her husband remained with her forever. According to her, her feelings of pain and fear are dulled. She is not afraid of death and still quietly flies on airplanes.

Another case confirms the disconnection of consciousness. Arina Vinogradova is one of the two surviving stewardesses of the Il-86 aircraft, which in 2002, having barely taken off, fell into Sheremetyevo. There were 16 people on board: four pilots, ten flight attendants and two engineers. Only two flight attendants survived: Arina and her friend Tanya Moiseeva. They say that in the last seconds, your whole life scrolls before your eyes. This didn’t happen to me, ”Arina tells Izvestia. - Tanya and I were sitting in the first row of the third cabin, at the emergency exit, but not in service chairs, but in passenger ones. Tanya is in front of me. The flight was technical - we just had to return to Pulkovo. At some point, the plane shook. This happens with the "IL-86". But for some reason I realized that we were falling. Although nothing seemed to happen, there was no siren or roll. I didn't get scared. Consciousness instantly swam somewhere, and I fell into a black void. I woke up with a sharp shock. At first I didn't understand anything. Then it slowly unraveled. It turned out that I was lying on a warm engine, littered with chairs. She couldn't pull herself away. She began to scream, pound on the metal and shake Tanya, who either raised her head or lost consciousness again. We were pulled out by firefighters and taken to different hospitals.

Arina still works as a flight attendant. The plane crash, she said, left no trauma in her soul. However, the incident affected Tatyana Moiseeva very strongly. Since then, she no longer flies, although she has not left aviation.

Fifth, a plane crash is a positive experience for survivors! Scientists came to unique conclusions: people who survived plane crashes later turned out to be healthier from a psychological point of view. They showed less anxiety, anxiety, did not fall into depression and did not experience post-traumatic stress, in contrast to the subjects from the control group, who had never had such an experience.

In conclusion, I bring to your attention, the speech of Rick Elias, who was sitting on the front row of the plane that made an emergency landing in the Hudson River in New York in January 2009. You will find out what thoughts came to his mind as the doomed plane fell down...

Still afraid to fly?-)

Despite the fact that thousands of times more people die in car accidents every year than in plane crashes, the fear of flying lives in the mass consciousness. First of all, this is due to the scale of the tragedies - a crashed liner means tens and hundreds of simultaneous deaths. This is much more shocking than several thousand reports of fatal accidents stretched over a month.

The second reason for the fear of a plane crash is the realization of one's own helplessness and inability to somehow influence the course of events. Almost always this is true. However, the history of aeronautics has accumulated a small number of exceptions in which people survived by falling with the aircraft (or its wreckage) from a height of several kilometers without a parachute. These cases are so few that many of them have their own Wikipedia pages.

Wreckage Rider

Jugoslovenski Aerotransport (now Air Serbia) flight attendant Vesna Vulovic holds the world record for surviving a free fall without a parachute. She got into the Guinness Book of Records because she survived after the explosion of a DC-9 plane at an altitude of 10,160 meters.

At the time of the explosion, Vesna was working with passengers. She immediately lost consciousness, so she did not remember the moment of the disaster or its details. Because of this, the flight attendant did not have a fear of flying - she perceived all the circumstances from hearsay. It turned out that at the time of the destruction of the plane, Vulovich was squeezed between the seat, the body of another crew member and the trolley from the buffet. In this form, the debris fell onto the snow-covered mountainside and slid along it until it came to a complete stop.

Vesna remained alive, although she received serious injuries - she broke the base of her skull, three vertebrae, both legs and the pelvis. For 10 months, the girl was paralyzed in the lower part of her body, in general, the treatment took almost 1.5 years.

After recovering, Vulovich tried to return to her previous job, but she was not allowed to fly and was given a position in the airline's office.

Target selection

Surviving as Vesna Vulovich in a cocoon of debris is much easier than in a single free flight. However, in the second case there are surprising examples. One of them dates from 1943, when US military pilot Alan Magee flew over France in a B-17 heavy four-engine bomber. At an altitude of 6 km, he was thrown out of the plane, and the glass roof of the station slowed down the fall. As a result, Maggie fell to the stone floor, remained alive and was immediately taken prisoner by the shocked Germans.

A great fall target would be a large haystack. Several cases are known when people survived in plane crashes if densely growing bushes appeared on their way. A dense forest also gives some chances, but here there is a risk of running into branches.

The ideal option for a falling person would be snow or a swamp. A soft and compressible environment that absorbs the inertia gained in flight to the center of the earth, with good luck, can make injuries compatible with life.

There is almost no chance of survival when falling on the water surface. Water practically does not compress, so the result of contact with it will be the same as in a collision with concrete.

Salvation can sometimes bring the most unexpected objects. One of the main things skydiving enthusiasts are taught is to stay away from power lines. However, a case is known when it was a high-voltage line that saved the life of a skydiver who found himself in free flight due to an unopened parachute. He hit directly on the wires, bounced off and fell to the ground from a height of several tens of meters.

Pilots and children

Air crash survival statistics show that underage crew members and passengers are significantly more likely to cheat death. With pilots, the situation is clear - in their cockpit, passive safety systems are more reliable than those of other passengers.

Why children survive more often than others is not fully understood. However, several reliable reasons, the researchers of this issue have established:

• increased bone flexibility, general muscle relaxation and a greater percentage of subcutaneous fat that protects internal organs from injury like a pillow;
• small stature, due to which the head is covered by the back of the chair from flying debris. This is extremely important, since the main cause of death in air crashes is brain injuries;
• smaller body size, which reduces the likelihood of running into some sharp object at the time of landing.

Invincible Spiritual Power

A successful landing does not always mean a positive outcome. Not every miraculous survivor is instantly found by benevolent locals. For example, in 1971, over the Amazon at an altitude of 3,200 meters, a Lockheed Electra aircraft was destroyed due to a fire caused by lightning in the wing with a fuel tank. 17-year-old German woman Juliana Kopke woke up in the jungle, strapped to a chair. She was injured but could move.

The girl remembered the words of her biologist father, who said that even in the impenetrable jungle you can always find people if you follow the flow of water. Juliana went along the forest streams, gradually turning into rivers. With a broken collarbone, a bag of sweets and a stick, with which she dispersed stingrays in shallow water, the girl went out to people after 9 days. In Italy, this story was made into the film Miracles Still Happen (1974).

There were 92 people on board, including Kopke. Subsequently, it was found that in addition to her, 14 more people survived the fall. However, over the next few days, they all died before rescuers found them.

An episode from the film "Miracles Still Happen" saved the life of Larisa Savitskaya, who in 1981 flew with her husband from their honeymoon flight Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Blagoveshchensk. At an altitude of 5,200 meters, the passenger An-24 collided with a Tu-16K bomber.

Larisa and her husband were sitting in the tail of the plane. The fuselage broke right in front of her seat, and the girl was thrown into the aisle. At that moment, she remembered a movie about Julian Kopka, who, during the crash, got to the chair, pressed herself into it and survived. Savitskaya did the same. Part of the body of the aircraft, in which the girl remained, fell on a birch grove that softened the blow. She was in the fall for about 8 minutes. Larisa was the only survivor, she was seriously injured, but remained conscious and retained the ability to move independently.

The surname Savitskaya is inscribed twice in the Russian version of the Guinness Book of Records. She is listed as the person who survived after falling from the greatest height. The second record is rather sad - Larisa became the one who received the minimum compensation for physical damage. She was paid only 75 rubles - that's how much, according to the norms of the State Insurance, then it was supposed to survive in a plane crash.

In the specialized literature there is a concept "competent passenger"- a person who makes the most of his chances of salvation in an emergency.

In 1974, during the crash of the B-707 aircraft in Pago Dago in Samoa, out of a hundred and one passengers, only five survived, who later said that they carefully read the memo and listened to the instructions of the stewardess. Therefore, to save them, they took advantage of the emergency exits to the wing, while other passengers staged a stampede, rushing to the traditional entrance-exit. The commission stated that most passengers would have been saved if they simply knew where the emergency hatches were and how to use them.

Today, the plane is one of the safest modes of transport. This is true, but only within the framework of statistics. It should be added that while it is still possible to escape from a car accident or a train crash, 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 a 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.

More often plane crashes in which someone survived, is an unsuccessful takeoff of the aircraft 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.

Unlike a car, an airplane, flying into a stationary structure or any vehicle, usually does not stop, but rushes on. Therefore, passengers are not subjected to sudden impacts. An exception to this would be when the plane collides with a mountain. In this case, the chances of salvation are minimal.

In other cases, in the event of an in-flight emergency, the crew may decide to make an emergency landing, which is quite likely in a deserted area. At the same time, if conditions allow and the aircraft is controllable, they try to land on a relatively flat area without obstacles, and in extreme cases, on a forest. At the same time, injuries and the number of victims increase, but if the plane does not fall apart immediately and does not burn, then the chances of salvation increase.

There are several basic types of emergencies. In the air, in order to act correctly in them, one must not only know how to behave, but also mentally make a path to salvation in advance. This gives you more chances that in a dangerous moment your memory will not fail you.

• Takeoff and landing accidents

It is unlikely that you will be warned about an accident of this kind in advance. Therefore, the most reasonable tactic is preliminary personal safety measures before each takeoff and landing. For example, be in outerwear: a coat or jacket (not synthetics!) Can protect you from burns if you have to get out of a fire. Stay in your shoes, even if they are high heels, in case you have to walk over debris, burning plastic, etc. A woman should take off her high-heeled shoes only in front of the inflatable ladder, without blocking the path to evacuation for other passengers and not letting go of her shoes in order to immediately put on shoes on the ground. Of course, you need to take off your tie, scarf, glasses, hairpins, etc. - in an extreme situation, even a fountain pen in the side pocket of a jacket is dangerous. Before each takeoff and landing, carefully adjust the seat belt. It should be firmly fixed as low as possible at your hips. Check if you have heavy suitcases over your head.

Just before an accident, it is usually possible to assume a safe, fixed position. It is usually recommended to bend over and clasp your hands tightly under your knees (or grab your ankles). The head should be laid on your knees, and if this does not work, tilt it as low as possible. The legs should be rested on the floor, extending them as far as possible (but not under the front seat, which can jam in an accident).

The US Federal Aviation Administration recommends using the seat in front of you for another fixed position. On the back of the chair, you should put your hands in a crossed state and press your head to your hands. Also stretch your legs and rest. And, of course, both poses can only be taken with a fastened belt. At the moment of impact, you should strain as much as possible and prepare for a significant overload. Its direction in most accidents is forward and maybe down.

As a rule, emergency exits are located on the left and right sides of the fuselage. All exits for passengers, approaches to them and means of opening are clearly marked from a distance, which facilitates their detection. The flight attendant tells about the location of all exits from the cabin in a brief instruction. Leaving all the pre-landing worries, listen to her carefully. Be sure to mentally imagine your way to the nearest exit. And if you sit next to an escape hatch, then you have an additional responsibility: the lives of many people depend on whether you manage to open it. However, it is not always possible to open the nearest exit (flame outside, deformation of the fuselage in this place, etc.), so you need to remember all the ways to escape.

Takeoff and landing accidents are usually sudden, and you may not wait for the crew to warn you, so be aware of all the events overboard (smoke, sudden descent, engine shutdown, etc.) in order to take a fixed position. However, under no circumstances leave your seat until the plane comes to a complete stop, do not panic. Only a professional can judge with certainty about the danger of what is happening.

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

Turbulence- these are various eddies and air currents, randomly moving 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 on sunny days over houses or over an area with a strong temperature contrast (sand, forest, lake, road) - the earth's surface warms up unevenly, and the heated air masses rise up at different speeds, which is why the plane can take off in ascending streams or fall into air pockets.

This is exactly what happened to the Boeing 747 of American Airlines, which flew over the Pacific Ocean on 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 highly discharged 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 acquainted with all the emergency systems that are on the plane even before the start. It is worth considering your own evacuation plan - find out where the emergency exit is, 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.

Decompression(rarefied air in an airplane). Rapid decompression usually begins with a deafening roar (air escapes). The salon is filled with dust and fog. Visibility drops sharply. Air quickly leaves the lungs of a person and cannot be retained. At the same time, ringing in the ears and pain in the intestines (gases expand) are likely.

Don your oxygen mask immediately without waiting for a command or assistance from the crew. The flight attendant will tell you where it is located and how to use it at the beginning of the flight. The mask must be put on, and not just pressed against the nose and mouth - even with the incoming oxygen, you can lose consciousness and drop the mask. For the same reason, you should not help someone before you put on a mask yourself, even if it is your child: if you do not have time to help yourself, both of you will be without oxygen.

Decompression is an emergency that the crew immediately begins to correct by lowering the flight altitude. Below three thousand meters, the oxygen content can already be considered normal. Therefore, if you experience signs of decompression, fasten your seat belts immediately after donning your mask and prepare for a sudden descent or hard landing.

Fire on board the aircraft. Most passengers estimate that during a fire overboard they will have about five minutes after landing to leave the aircraft. However, experience shows that it is better to count on one or two minutes. Approximately 20% of aircraft accidents are accompanied by fires; over 70% of people involved in air crashes with fires remain alive.

It is very important to remember the location of the exits. In case of fire, this is also necessary because the smoke interferes not only with breathing, but also with seeing signs. And most importantly, in case of fire, immediately after the plane stops, go to the nearest exit. Wherein:

• protect your skin - you should be wearing a coat, hat, blanket;
• do not breathe smoke, protect yourself with clothing, crouch or even make your way to the exit on all fours - there should be less smoke at the bottom; remember - smoke, not fire - the first danger;
• remove nylon tights and stockings, when melted they can cause severe burns;
• do not stand in the crowd at the exit, if the queue does not move, remember that if other exits; if the passage is littered, make your way through the chairs, lowering their backs;
• before takeoff, count and remember the number of seats next to you in front of and behind you on the way to the emergency exit, then you will be able to get to it even by touch in impenetrable smoke;
• do not take hand luggage with you, it can cost you your life;
• do not open emergency hatches in the place where there is fire and smoke outside;
• be decisive and disciplined, fight panic on board by any means, provide maximum assistance to the stewardess;
• do not become the cause of the fire yourself: on board the aircraft, you must treat fire in the same way as in a fuel truck.

Water landing. The passenger, who has every chance of being rescued from a water landing, should have some idea of ​​the position in which the aircraft is buoyant even before it lands on the water. Some aircraft float horizontally, others with their tails submerged, and some with their noses submerged. Knowing this, you will not rush in a panic to the emergency exit at the rear of the aircraft if this exit is under water. You should also know in advance which water rescue equipment (vests, rafts, etc.) are on board, where they are located and how to use them. Before sinking, the aircraft can be afloat from 10 to 40 minutes. However, if the fuselage is damaged, this time may be significantly shorter.

After splashing down, life rafts should be launched, which inflate automatically when dropped. If this does not happen, then you need to pull the halyard with a strong jerk, which leads to the cylinder of the gas filling system. The time to bring the raft into working condition takes about one minute in summer and three minutes in winter.

Aircraft crashes show two dangerous types of passenger behavior - panic and apathy. Oddly enough, torpor is much more common. This must be remembered in order to prevent such a reaction in oneself and under no circumstances stop the struggle for one's salvation.

How to survive a plane crash on the ground. Ed Galea, a professor from Australia who survived a plane crash, thought about how you can improve your own chances of survival. The most important thing is to never forget that the plane can get into an accident. Naturally, we are not talking about a plane crashing from a great height - it is almost impossible to survive in a car falling from a height of 10 thousand meters, however, the number of incidents that occur already on the ground is much higher, and do not forget that they also die People. At the same time, according to statistics, in the period from 1983 to 2000, 95% of passengers survived in aviation accidents in the United States. For example, in 2005 on board the liner Air France, caught fire during landing at the Toronto airport, there were 309 people, and all survived. This incident was called the Miracle in Toronto.

Ed Galea in 1985 was on board a plane that, as it happens, went off the runway and caught fire. This accident killed 55 passengers flying with him. Since then, he has been dealing with the rules of survival on board. During his work, he interviewed more than 2,000 survivors of 105 aviation accidents. Based on their experience, he deduced a number of simple rules.

Many people prefer to get to a particular region with the help of an airliner, because it is much more convenient and faster to travel by air than by train. According to statistics every 2-3 seconds a plane lands and takes off in the world. Is it worth it to give in to fear when you go on board an airplane? How often do planes crash? Such questions always torment passengers, especially those who rarely fly an aircraft.

Everyone fears for their lives, so it is not surprising why such questions arise. If you look at the news, which constantly talk about some kind of disaster, often associated with air travel, then immediately there is no desire to go somewhere. Of course, there is always danger. Even while staying at home, there is a risk of death, for example, from a gas leak. Thus, to fly or not to fly on aircraft is a very controversial issue, and here everyone decides for himself what is best for him to do. In order to understand how many airliners get into a disaster, consider the statistics.

How many planes crash a year is a question that interests many people, even those who are not going on a flight. You can provide the following data:

1. According to statistics, about 10,000 airliners take off into the sky every day.
2. Approximately 4.5 billion people fly in aircraft, which is more than half of the world's population.
3. Of these, about 1,000 people die in air crashes.
4. In 100 years of passenger aviation, 150,000 people have died.

This figure is several times less than the number of victims in traffic accidents per month. So which one is safer to ride? The answer is obvious. In road accidents, people die much more often, so driving in cars is much more life-threatening than flying in airplanes.

According to statistics, since 2009 there have been 107 air crashes, with 3,245 passengers killed.

How often do planes crash in Russia?

Unfortunately, our country occupies a leading position in the ranking of countries that have experienced the largest number of air accidents. This is due to the fact that Russia is the largest power in the world. If we take the statistics from 2009, then in the Russian Federation there was the largest number of accidents related to airliners - 38 pieces. They killed 378 people. This is followed by America, where 11 incidents have occurred in the last 6 years. If we take into account the data for the entire time of the existence of civil aviation, then the first place is occupied by the United States of America.

• Russia (38 accidents);
• USA (11 for the period);
• Ukraine (7 in 6 years);
• Congo (6 over the same period);
• Germany (4 disasters in 2010).

What planes crash the most?

If we talk about which planes crash most often, here you need to give a rating of the most dangerous airliners. So the list is:

1. Boeing 737. This passenger aircraft was recognized as the most dangerous, as several plane crashes occurred on it.
2. IL-76. A terrible accident happened on this aircraft 13 years ago and claimed a lot of human lives.
3. Tu-154. It also had a lot of accidents.
4. Airbus A310. The last disaster was this year, which claimed more than 150 lives and only one girl managed to survive.
5. McDonnell-Douglas DC-9. It has been out of production for many years, but ready-made aircraft fly quite often. For all the time of its existence on board this aircraft, only 44 people died.

Compared to the years of the last XX century, the number of air crashes, alas, has increased. Planes crash for various reasons. This may be a malfunction of the airliner itself, weather conditions, or a human factor. It is difficult to say unequivocally whether planes often fall. Compared to an accident, it is much safer to travel on an aircraft. But in general, you should not be afraid of aircraft, because on the ground the risk of dying is much greater than in the air.

To date, air travel has become so popular that the frequency of use of aircraft for tourists is equal to that of cars and trains. However, air travel seems to many to be very dangerous and not entirely reliable. Is this true, how do our ideas about the dangers of air travel compare with statistics, and how often do planes crash?

The choice of transport for travel

During the period of long-awaited vacations and long holidays, many are faced with the problem of choosing to travel abroad to hot beaches or snow-covered ski resorts. And it is complicated, because you need to correlate many factors, such as ease of movement, the price tag for the trip itself, and, most importantly, safety. Let's look at statistical studies and find out how often planes crash and whether the scale of this is really as fatal as people think.

Trains are safer - delusion or not?

According to statistical studies, the safest mode of transportation for people is the train. Slightly higher rating for the train. Airplanes do not inspire confidence among the population in the world at all. Only sixteen percent of the respondents believe in their complete reliability. If we take into account cars, then their safety rating is generally low, because they are initially considered very traumatic for traveling long distances.

However, in the struggle between different modes of transport in terms of reliability, everything is not so simple. Aircraft according to many years of research by experts in air crashes and statistical studies are recognized by right. Nevertheless, people, despite official scientific evidence, still do not trust them. Why is this happening? Maybe the news that a plane has crashed somewhere really scares tourists? Let's understand the situation.

The plane is not safe?

Although statistics is an exact science, the final result is very dependent on the method of calculation. When determining the level of aircraft safety, the number of tragic events per total number of kilometers of flights is taken. It is this type of calculation that is mainly used by extras, and it is its results that are published in official sources.

The whole secret lies in the fact that most disasters occur during takeoffs and landings. Plane crashes are much less common on the way. But this method of calculation is very beneficial for transport companies, and they very often use it so as not to discourage tourists from choosing air travel for transportation. Nevertheless, such an indicator as those who died in a plane crash (their number) during takeoff and landing accidents is becoming very large.

If we take into account the calculation of tragic cases for the total mileage of movement, then the most dangerous will be two types of movement - a motorcycle and walking. One has only to look at the summary of the tragic moments in any city and you can see that a lot of pedestrians die, even more than motorcyclists.

If you study other methods of statistical research, then the plane will give way to the train for safety. For example, in terms of the number of deaths of passengers on the number of trips and the speed of movement, air travel is the most unfavorable.

When considering other research methods, it turns out that for travel it is best to choose trains. So it’s not for nothing that tourists are feverish from the mere news that a plane has crashed, and a trip by rail rightfully has a safety advantage in people’s minds.

Ranking of the safest airlines

Be that as it may, you still have to fly, since there are such resorts that you simply cannot get to by any other mode of transport, but you really want to. Despite bad forecasts, negative reviews and gloomy opinions, our country is still not the weakest in terms of air travel safety. But the United States has been a leader in the fall of aircraft for quite a long period of time. If we build a rating by countries - owners of aircraft, then we can say that the top five include Finland, New Zealand, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates. It is the companies of this five that are worth flying, and then no air disaster will be terrible. Russia is in the sixteenth place in this rating with the firm "Transaero".

Causes of plane crashes

Why do planes crash? Tourists, before choosing an airline, give preference to companies with the "youngest" modes of transport in terms of service life. However, this is not at all supported by statistics. According to them, in Russia the company with the most unworn transport fleet is Aeroflot. The age of operation of its aircraft is less than five years. However, Finland, which occupies a leading position in terms of flight safety and a small number of air crashes, has a period of operation of its machines for more than nine years.

This fact indicates that the crash of the aircraft due to wear and tear and service life is unlikely. By choosing an airline based on the criterion of its small transport, the probability of a fall does not decrease at all. If we turn to statistics, we can see that a greater number of air crashes occur due to the human factor, and there is no escape from this.

How to overcome your fear of flying, because there are situations when traveling by plane is simply unavoidable. Psychologists give good advice on this matter. If fear is caused by any disorders in the psyche, be it panic attacks or fear of a small enclosed space, then these problems need to be addressed.

However, in many cases, fear is caused by the lack of full personal control over the situation and the safety of the flight. This must be accepted as inevitable, because any movement by transport depends little on us. Therefore, it is recommended to simply relax and distract from bad thoughts by watching a movie on a tablet or listening to pleasant music during an air flight. Never use alcohol as a stress reliever. In fact, if he dulls his nervous state, then for a very short time, and then the problem will only get worse. Fear of flying should be dealt with first of all with yourself. There is no need to simply wag your nerves, taking into account the information of the news channels about how often planes crash, but you just need to calm down and try to take your emotions under control.

Which planes are more likely to crash?

If we turn to world statistics, Boeing can be recognized as the most unreliable, An is the second in terms of the number of falls, and Il is in third place. If we turn to Russian studies, we can see that the most "falling" in our country will be "An". Why do planes crash? In 2005 alone, as many as nine cars of this brand crashed in Russia. In the world, they account for nineteen percent of all disasters.

The causes of air crashes in Russia are explained by journalists in one vein - the outdated transport fleet of domestic companies. Is this really so and how often do planes crash for this reason?

Causes of Russian plane crashes

In general, the aging of air transport is expressed not in the number of years since its production, but in the amount of hours flown and the general technical condition. According to statistics, Russia has Soviet-era aircraft and their percentage is much higher than foreign-made units. However, do not look at age. Compared to foreign ships, domestic ones flew much fewer hours, and the Soviet quality of production was one of the best in the world.

For what reason, then, does Russia acquire foreign aircraft for a lot of money, when it has its own quite reliable aircraft? An example is Tu aircraft. They have excellent statistics on flight safety, and pilots consider them the most convenient in terms of technical device.

One of the reasons is the fact that Tu aircraft are very expensive in terms of the amount of fuel consumed. And since air travel has long turned into a separate type of business, company directors, in pursuit of reducing the cost of maintaining their fleet of cars, prefer foreign liners, which are much more economical than Russian counterparts.

Another reason is the fading of aircraft. The technologies for their production are significantly outdated, investments in aircraft factories are not being made. Therefore, our country cannot compete with more advanced foreign units.

How to save the situation?

In Russia, in order to stabilize the situation with the aircraft manufacturing market, the President signed a Decree on the creation of the United Aircraft Corporation. Moreover, investments in aircraft manufacturing plants in the amount of ten billion dollars were planned. It was way back in 2006. At present, the situation has not improved at all. The process of forming the corporation was very much slowed down and, according to journalists, the purpose of its creation was not to study the market of competitors, but to unite all the assets of Russian airlines in one place.

Nevertheless, there are positive developments. The Ilyushin Finance company purchased Il and Tu aircraft from Russia. The Tashkent Production Association concluded an agreement with the St. Petersburg airline for the supply of Il aircraft to Russia, most of which will be of Russian configuration.

What do you need to know about an air crash?

From the fall of the aircraft, no one is immune. However, if you have the necessary information about what happens when the plane crashes, there is a chance to survive the crash. In the nineties, an accident occurred with the B-707 liner. Hundreds of people died in the plane crash. Nevertheless, five passengers took advantage of the information from the flight attendant's instructions and survived.

In some cases, there is a chance to be saved if you have the necessary knowledge. They are not as useless as they seem at first glance. Knowing what happens when a plane crashes, you can apply a lot of effective methods for your own safety.

As the main ways to protect yourself, as the statistics of air crashes show us, is the observance of precautionary measures. First of all, it is necessary, if possible, to remain in shoes and clothes. This will be fire protection. Remove all foreign objects from the pockets of clothing and fasten the seat belt tightly. It is allowed to remove it only after a special command of the stewardess.

Immediately before the accident, if possible, it is necessary to take a protective position - you need to bend as low as possible and clasp your hands very tightly under your knees. The head should be put on them, and if this cannot be done, then lower it as far as possible. Feet should rest as tightly as possible on the floor. Such a technique, and it is fully proved by the statistics of air crashes, often saves the lives of passengers in a plane crash.

Finally

As you can see, flying is not such a terrible thing. The main thing is to use tickets for flights only for airlines that have been tested by time and a small number of accidents, as well as comply with the safety requirements for aircraft passengers, so that later the experts do not have to study the falling plane on which you flew to rest in a warm country. Safe flights and successful landings with takeoffs!