Top Tips to survive a Plane Crash

I'm often asked, well, where should I sit in an aircraft to have the best chance of surviving and, sadly, I haven't got a good answer. You can't say, well, it's best to sit at the back because if the plane crash lands it'll be the front, where you'll have the most danger, because if you have a fire and the plane's on fire at the back, then you're better at the front. So the answer is to go where you're allocated, but to make the most of whatever opportunities you have near you to escape should you need to do so.

There isn't exactly the safest place to sit on an aircraft, because one would have to know how it was going to hit the ground. However, having said that, I prefer to sit at a part of an aircraft that has access to the most exits, but I think that's due to my experience as an accident investigator, and believe that properly designed aircraft every seat has an equal chance of success.

If you're within seven seat rows of a serviceable exit then your chance of surviving an accident is greater than your chances of perishing in that accident. And so if you're greater than seven seats away, your chances of dying in the accident are greater than that of surviving. Now that doesn't mean if you're more than seven seats away you're going to die in an accident, it just means you have a greater statistical chance of not surviving that accident.

One of the things to do when you get on the aeroplane isn't just to do your seat-belt up but, particularly, I think, when the cabin crew demonstrate how to do it, have a go at doing it. The reason for practising this is that we're all very, very familiar with car seat-belts, and the way you undo car seat-belts these days with the cross-over is different to that of an aircraft seat. So to try and ensure that you remember how your aircraft seat is undone, have a quick practice.

When I fly on an airplane, number one is that during take-off and landing, I keep my belt very tight, you know, low across - low and tight across my hips so that it interacts with my pelvic bone.

When an airline is coming in to land at night, they will dim the lights in the cabin before the aircraft lands, and that's so that you can become accustomed to the level of light outside, so that in the event that you have to evacuate your eyes have adjusted and so you can see where you're going. And for that reason you should actually turn your reading lights off as well, so that you do become adjusted quickly to the level of lighting outside.

The best thing to do if you're anticipating having to use the brace position, and to help you to remember it, is to actually try it out, do it yourself, it will only take a minute. If it's the brace position where you put your head against the seat in front, get into the seat - get your head there and feel how it is. Equally, with your legs, there will be clear indication from the card where your legs are to go, get it all right, have a little practice.

The brace position can be confusing, because there are a variety of ones. The important thing is to look at your information card and listen to the safety briefing to know what's appropriate for that seat you're sitting in. There's a variety of brace positions that can be adopted. One of them is like this, or there's another one like this, or there's also one like this, or if there's a seat in front of you, sometimes like this with your seat in front of you. The common thing with all these brace positions is to get your upper torso down as much as possible.

The reason I count the seat rows from my seating position to the exit is that in the event of smoke or in the event that the emergency lighting fails and it's very dark, I can - because I know the number of seat rows, I can count from where I am, I can feel my way to an exit. By counting the seat backs I'll know when I've reached the exit row.

In an accident if there's smoke on board, it is terribly important that you get out as quickly as you can. So before the accident or when you get on board, you want to think what will I do, how will I know where to go, you'll have counted your seat rows and taken account of whatever else is relevant, and then you will start moving, using the information which you know, because you won't necessarily be able to see down the cabin.

The thing that you need to be aware of is not to inflate the life-vest before you go out of the airplane. One of the things that we found is that people sometimes inflate them inside, then if the plane does start sinking, then they float to the top inside the airplane, and the traffic cannot get out. So maintaining the vest in the un-inflated condition is best until you get out, and then inflate it at that point in time.

You want to make sure that you can get into the raft as fast as possible whenever that time comes and stay calm and just remember that help will arrive, as long as you can hold out.

You need to try to maintain a focus, have a plan for what you're going to do once you get out of the airplane. We know that having a plan is the biggest single factor in surviving any kind of crash.

During an evacuation, when there are groups on the aeroplane, if they all stay together and they can all move together and help each other, that's an excellent situation. However, if does sometimes happen, unfortunately, that groups get split up, and when they do it's very difficult, because obviously the first instinct is to find each other.

But everybody trying to get out of an aeroplane... it was rather like a row of cars coming down a one-way street if the doors are open in the front. And if there is a car coming in the opposite direction, that obviously causes congestion and blockages, and the same thing happens down the aisle of an aeroplane.

Surviving isn't just about getting to the door of the aircraft, it's actually about getting out down the slide, and the things to think about when you're approaching a slide are a) have you got any sharp objects, either shoes which might cause the slide to deflate, in which case take them off, or sharp objects, say in your back pockets, which could dig in to you or the slide. And then really to keep yourself together, hold your arms around you, put your legs together and literally jump and sit down, just like on a trampoline or a bouncy castle.

Get to the bottom. When you get to the bottom the key thing is to get away from the bottom of that slide quickly. There may be others who will help you get up, if not, get up and run away, because there will be people coming down after you in rapid succession, and if you're still there, they'll crash in to the back of you.