A plane crash in Colombia has killed 71 people including most of one of Brazil’s top football teams, leaving just six survivors. While the investigation may take some time to reveal the factors behind the accident, the distressingly high – but not total – number of fatalities raises the question of how some people are able to survive such a devastating disaster.
Aircraft accidents, especially those involving jet aircraft, are increasingly rare. According to the International Air Transport Association, 2015 saw one accident for every 3.1m flights. That’s a spectacular achievement for an industry that is not much more than a century old and which involves transporting people at such high speeds in what can be challenging environments. But when an accident does occur, what is it that determines that some passengers survive when many others on the same flight do not?
The first factor is whether an accident is deemed “survivable” at all. While it may seem like a simple definition, there are actually “unsurvivable” accidents where people beat the odds. Unsurvivable accidents tend to be those where there is either a catastrophic loss of control or where the impact is at high velocity.
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