If you are ever stranded in the desert after your plane crashes (not that they do often), the most important thing is to STAY WITH THE PLANE! Mirrors are also handy for signaling. There is more on what to do, as my dad did this teamwork exercise thing, and you have to choose what to do.

Recently the FAA and the CAA have changed their instructions for the "crash position" from sticking you head between your knees to a different sitting position.

This isn't so you're more likely to survive... no, this is so that there is more likelyhood of your teeth surviving intact! They've found that with the traditional method, a lot of the crash victims had broken jaw bones, so it was hard for them to make dental identification. Especially important if there was a fire.

Other things to think about are:

Seat yourself as close to the tail as you can! This is the portion of the plane with the highest survival rate. If you're seated in first class or the cockpit, then you've had it! This part of an aircraft is most likely the first thing to hit the ground.

Don't think that if you're landing on water you'll be better off. When travelling at any substantial velocity, water becomes as hard as concrete (remember Dambusters )

If you've crashed, then the chances of the aircraft catching fire are slim. Most good pilots will ditch most of the fuel if they know they have to crash land... Otherwise if it's an unexpected accident (mid-air collision etc...) then you'll probably burn.... .

The biggest problem with almost all crashes or accidents is that people panic and climb over each other to get out... This doesn't help (obviously) but especially if you're sinking or you're on fire.

If you want to survive after a crash, your best bet is to stay in or near the plane (depending on the state of it) and wait for the emergency services to arrive. It's also essential to stay warm in these conditions as it'll probably be sometime before anyone arrives.

One contributor suggests jumping a couple of seconds before the plane hits the ground. yup.

...Actually, if you've bailed from a plane then you are free falling without a parachute. Then keep as far spread out as you can, this will slow your descent... but not by much! Anyway, you should be able to tilt your body in certain directions, this might just allow you to steer yourself towards something useful to land on.... Whatever you do, don't aim for water! This will kill you... No, aim either for some woodland or a farmers barm (hopefully full of hay). And at the last second curl into a ball, and you'll have about a 1 in 50 chance of surviving

Not meaning to be disagreeable here, but that posting about freefalling to safety is fairly incorrect. Being a skydiver, it can be said that while it is true you fall slower if you're spread out, you still fall at about 200 km per hour. You can direct your body and "fly" around, but it's not by tilting, and it would be impossible to do without training AND practice - it is so hard! It would be pretty much impossible for an experienced skydiver to direct his or her body to land on something as small as a barn when travelling at 200 km per hour, and a skydiver knows how to move around - someone who's never skydived would just be flipping around in the air. Finally, where did someone get the figure of the 1 in 50 survival rates - seems pretty generous!!

... That's quite alright, be as disagreeable as you like, after all you're withing your rights

I wasn't attempting to state facts, mearly theoretical possibilities I realise that my terminology of "tilting" was grosly inaccurate... if is of course possible to direct one's self during free fall and manouever in differant directions. However aiming at something is a highly improbably feat, even if you have many years of skydiving experiance... The referance to the barn was intended for comical value and wasn't meant as a serious point However there have been documented cases of people surviving a parachute failure, by directing themselves towards wooded areas and using the branches to slow their fall... This didn't mean they survived in any decent shape, having broken many bones. But they did however survive which I'm sure you'll agree is the main thing

Yes, there are some amazing survival stories out there! Like one guy, who's chute failed, and he just hit the ground and seemed to bounce... and he was in pretty good shape. I don't understand how that's possible when you're falling at 200km/h! But you're right, there is a chance of survival...

The trick is to sit above the black box in the plane,It's always the bit that survives!

Only you can't.... they're in a special compartment in the tail section, and not really "sitable" on They're also orange and a right pain when they go wrong... (very rarely) ... also very tricky to repair...... I should know, I used to do it