How Do People Survive Plane Crashes That Kill Nearly Everyone Else?

How Do People Survive Plane Crashes That Kill Nearly Everyone Else?·The Wall Street Journal

When Jeju Air Flight 2216 crash-landed at a South Korean airport, skidded into an embankment beyond the runway and burst into flames, it seemed impossible that any of its 181 occupants could have survived. Investigators assessing the survivability of a plane crash focus on five factors: integrity of the aircraft, effectiveness of safety restraints, G-forces experienced by passengers and crew, the environment inside the aircraft and postcrash factors such as fire or smoke. The two flight attendants who survived the Boeing 737-800 crash were seated in the very back of the plane, which was the only recognizable part of the aircraft left intact.

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