Colombia plane crash: How can people survive deadly air disasters?

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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Football mourns as plane crash kills Brazilian players

Chapecoense Real was on its way to play in the finals of the Copa Sudamericana when disaster struck

The football world mourned after a plane carrying a Brazilian team crashed in the mountains in Colombia, killing 71 people but miraculously leaving six survivors, officials said.

Football legends Pele and Maradona as well as current superstars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo led tributes to the players of Chapecoense Real, a humble team whose march to glory was cut abruptly short.

Having risen only recently from obscurity, the team was on its way to play in the finals of the Copa Sudamericana, South America's second-biggest club tournament, when disaster struck.

'Disastrous scene'

The plane went down about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Medellin, in a remote mountain area called Cerro Gordo.

"The pain is terrible. Just as we had made it, I will not say to the top, but to have national prominence, a tragedy like this happens," club vice-president Ivan Tozzo told Globo SportTV.

"It is very difficult, a very great tragedy."

Colombia's civil aviation authority initially said 75 people were killed, but it later emerged that four people on the passenger manifest had not in fact boarded the plane — a club official, a journalist, the mayor of the team's hometown and the city council president.

"It's one of those things in life. Only God knows why I ended up staying behind," the mayor, Luciano Buligon, told Brazil's TV Globo.

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