What to do on the plane if an emergency occurs. Safety rules for emergencies on board aircraft. splashdown by plane

Ever since man first took to the air, he has known the fall. Every year, flight technology has become more complex, more perfect and safer, but aircraft crashes still occur. Mass death of people in the fall passenger liner becomes not only grief for the inconsolable relatives of the victims, but also a national tragedy.

At the same time, people who survived after a plane crash become celebrities who are spoken and written about by the media in all countries of the world. This happens because there are very few of them.

Plane crash statistics

If we take statistics for the entire historical period of the development of passenger air transportation, we can conclude that they are extremely rare. The chance that the vehicle will crash during flight, takeoff or landing is 1/8 million. This means that it would take a person more than 20,000 years of daily flights on random flights to board that unlucky one.

If we take the statistics of the identified causes of the fall of equipment, then in percentage terms it will look like this:

• when the aircraft is being loaded, 5% of accidents occur (most often a fire);
• during takeoff - 17% of accidents;
• when climbing only 8% of cases;
• during the flight 6%;
• when the aircraft descends - 3%;
• approach is the cause of 7% of cases;
• aircraft landing - 51%.

The statistics of all recorded cases of airliner crashes show that the greatest risk is present during takeoff and fall. This is probably why passengers applaud the pilots after they complete this stage of the flight.

Survivors after a plane crash most often indicate that something “suddenly” became wrong with the plane. In fact, meticulous extras and workers responsible for flight safety note that the reasons for a sudden breakdown of instruments or ignited engines are flaws that have not been identified on the ground, which means that the reasons for the crash of the liners should first of all be looked for there.

Causes of plane crashes

No matter how you say it, but the main cause of all air crashes is the human factor. Machines do not spoil themselves and do not incapacitate. The lack of due attention during their assembly, during daily checks for malfunctions and the conscious work of pilots and dispatchers - all this most often leads to the crash of equipment.

Is it possible to survive in a plane crash if the specialists did their job poorly? And in this case, the answer will be yes, since today there are cases when more than 1 person remained alive.

Aircraft crash statistics as a percentage is as follows:

• pilot error is the cause of 50% of cases;
• errors of personnel serving during the flight were revealed in 7% of tragedies;
• the influence of weather conditions account for 12%;
• malfunction of instruments and the machine as a whole - 22% (what was not properly identified before the flight);
• terrorism and others (unidentified causes or collision in the air) - 9%.

Of these reasons, except for the weather, everything else is the activity of people. This suggests that the tragedy could have been avoided, and the cases of survivors of the plane crash were significantly higher. If we take the statistics of the largest crashes over the past 30 years, then their causes are:

• DC-8 crashed in Newfoundland in 1985 on takeoff due to loss of speed, killing 250 passengers;
• the crash of a Boeing 747 in 1985 in Japan was caused by poor repairs, resulting in 520 casualties;
• Il-76, following from Kazakhstan to Saudi Arabia crashed in India in 1996 from a mid-air collision with a Boeing, the result - 349 dead;
• Il-76 crashed in Iran in 2003 due to impact on the ground in poor visibility, killing 275 people;
• 224 people who did not survive the Kogalymavia plane crash in October 2015 added to the sad statistics: the reason is a possible terrorist attack.

That's not all major crashes, which happened from 1985 to 2015, but even they show that their cause is most often human inattention or dishonesty. The list of plane crash survivors would be much longer if flight safety professionals did their job well and passengers knew what to do to stay alive.

What to do in case of a plane crash

It turns out that there are rules that really help people stay alive when the liner crashes. The most basic instructions are given by flight attendants before the start of the flight. Unfortunately, most passengers do not listen to them, and even more so they cannot put them into practice. Among the simplest recommendations, it is considered mandatory:

• be fastened during takeoff and landing (ideally, it is better to be fastened during the entire flight);
• know where the life jackets are and how to use the oxygen mask;
• in an emergency, do not leave your seat, and even more so do not try to get into luggage compartment to save your belongings;
• concentrate and take the correct posture before the aircraft collides with the ground or water (bending your head to your knees, covering it with your hands).

In addition to these simple rules, there are several conclusions of emergency specialists that survivors of a plane crash applied intuitively and did not suffer.

Most of the passengers die after the plane crashes and catches fire, because they cannot get out of it in time. To prevent this from happening, you should know in advance:

• How are the seat belts unfastened?
• the exact direction to the exit (especially if there is smoke in the cabin);
• panic is 100% death.

For example, George Lamson, still a 17-year-old teenager in 1985, survived only because at the time of the collision of the plane in which he was flying with his father, his chair was thrown out of the cabin. If the boy had not been fastened and had not pressed his head to his knees, and after the fall he had not been able to quickly unfasten himself and run to a safe distance, he would have died, like the other 70 people.

As the cases of survivors of a plane crash show, if a person does not panic and knows what to do, then he has every chance of surviving. Examining examples of such tragedies, scientists have come to the conclusion that many passengers, instead of getting out of the plane, are waiting for someone's instructions or instructions. It is important to know that in such a situation everyone is responsible for their own safety.

High risk situations

Although it may seem that the survivors of a plane crash are just the lucky ones, in reality they are not. As the data of scientists from England, who studied more than 2,000 rescue cases in such an accident, showed, these people were helped not by a simple coincidence of circumstances, but by specific knowledge and actions, plus a bit of luck.

It turns out that there are high-risk zones and safer areas in airplanes, as evidenced by survival statistics:

• for example, those who sit in the first five rows in the nose of an aircraft have a 65% chance of survival;
• it is even higher for those who sit in these rows on the outer seats (67%), and not near the windows (58%);
• passengers at the rear of the aircraft have a 53% survival rate if they are also seated in the first five rows from the emergency exit;
• people who survived after a plane crash and sat in the middle of the cabin are extremely rare.

In addition to risk areas in the cabin, the aircraft itself also plays an important role. So, statistics say that 73% of all air crashes occur in big planes calculated up to 30 seats. Fatal outcome of a fall of a single-engine or small plane is 68%, which suggests that the chance to survive for passengers and pilots of such vehicles is tantamount to a miracle.

There is only one conclusion - you should fly big planes reliable companies. Hardly just right choice the vehicle and the space in it will save lives in an emergency, but its passengers will have more chances of survival, and rescuers in the event of a crash big liner they don’t ask the question “are there any survivors of a plane crash”, but save them.

The most difficult situations

The most difficult and dangerous part of the disaster is the collision of the aircraft with the ground or water. After this happened, people only have 1.5-2 minutes to stay alive. It is at this time that it is necessary to meet in order to unfasten, find a way out and jump out as far as possible.

The biggest threat to life is a fire and carbon monoxide filling the cabin, which is confirmed by a woman who survived the plane crash. Larisa Savitskaya survived after the plane in which she was flying with her husband collided with a bomber. Having received burns from the fire that started, she managed to concentrate and take the correct position in the chair, which saved her life when she fell on it from a height of 5200 m for 8 minutes.

Her landing was “softened” by tree branches, but even after surviving such a fall, she had to endure a severe shock both from her injuries and from the fact that rescuers were in no hurry to search crashed plane sure no one survived.

“Are there people who survived the plane crash?” - this question should be in the first place for those who deal with similar situations. Larisa waited two days for help with a fracture of the cervical spine and a head injury. She is the only one who got into the Guinness book twice for the same event:

• first time as a survivor after falling from a height of more than 5 km;
• the second - as having received the most meager compensation for the damage received - only 75 rubles.

No less a threat to human life is a collision of an aircraft with a water surface, although most passengers naively believe that it can soften the fall. Such ignorance of the elementary laws of physics cost the lives of many people.

Fall into the ocean

When a plane crashes over the ocean, it's not uncommon, but the death toll remains shockingly high, although there are survivors of a plane crash on the water.

This happens for several reasons:

• firstly, people often cannot find and put on a life jacket because of panic;
• secondly, they put it into action too early, and when inflated, it prevents not only moving, but also swimming out of the cabin if water has entered there;
• thirdly, they do not know that the impact of an aircraft on the water is tantamount to a collision with a concrete surface, and they may not buckle up to take a rescue position.

Except when the pilot makes a forced landing on the water, falling into the ocean is just as dangerous as falling to the ground, as the only girl who survived the plane crash confirms.

Bakari was 12 years old when she and her mother flew from Paris to Yemen. For an unknown reason, the plane crashed into the ocean 14 km from the coast of Bolshiye Komory Island. From the impact on the water, he was torn to pieces, and the girl fell into the water. She was lucky that parts of the liner remained on her surface, on one of which she waited 14 hours until she was picked up by a nearby fishing boat.

The story of the girl went around the whole world, as this is one of those examples when, perhaps, there would have been more survivors if help had arrived in time. Hypothermia and life jackets not put on in time claimed the lives of other passengers.

This is not the last example where the sole survivor of a plane crash had to fight for her life due to the lack of help on the ground.

Fall in the jungle

Although there are examples when the fall of the plane was softened by tree branches, the number of passengers and crew members who survived did not increase. How a person behaves during a tragedy still plays a big role.

An example of this is the story of a German 17-year-old schoolgirl traveling with her mother from Lima to Pucallpa (Peru) before Christmas 1971. In fact, it was a small flight, which became tragic due to the fact that the plane got into turbulence during a thunderstorm.

From a lightning strike, the systems of the airship went out of order, a fire started in the cabin. Juliana Koepke is the only survivor of the plane crash during this flight. At an altitude of 6400 m, both wings of the aircraft came off, after which the liner, which had gone into a tailspin, began to fall apart in parts.

The girl was saved by the fact that she was wearing a seatbelt and took a rescue position when a row of chairs, along with her seat, was “thrown” overboard. During the fall, it, along with the debris from the cabin, rotated strong wind, which led to a downward slope and fall into the dense thickets of the Amazon jungle.

The consequences of the “landing” were a broken collarbone, abrasions and bruises, but even greater trials awaited her. Located 500 km from Lima, in the thick of the jungle, without knowing the way, this young woman who survived a plane crash was forced to fight for her life in an unfamiliar area.

For 9 whole days she walked down the river, afraid to move far from it, so as not to lose the source of water. Eating fruits and plants that she recognized and could pick, the girl went to the parking lot of the fishermen, who took her to the hospital.

If Juliana had stayed to wait for help near the crashed plane, she would most likely have died. Based on these events, the Italian television company filmed the feature film “Miracles Still Happen”, which subsequently saved the life of a Soviet girl, Larisa Savitskaya, who had been waiting for two days for rescuers.

Surviving crew members

It is quite rare to hear that the crew members survived when the plane crashed. Perhaps they are busy rescuing passengers or are at this moment in the most “unfavorable” part of the aircraft, but this is a fact.

But there are examples when a flight attendant who survived a plane crash was the only one saved. Vesna Vulovic was only 22 years old in 1972 when a Yugoslav airline plane fell apart in the air as a result of a terrorist bomb during a regular flight from Copenhagen to Zagreb.

This case can be attributed to a "miracle", since Vesna was able to survive being in the middle of the aircraft cabin when falling from a height of more than 10 km. The fragment of the car she was in fell into the snow-covered trees, which greatly softened the blow.

The second "miracle" was that while she was unconscious, a farmer from a nearby village found her and took her to the hospital. The flight attendant, who survived a plane crash after falling from such a height, was in a coma for almost a month, and then struggled for another 16 months to be able to move around and live a normal life.

Vesna Vulovich became the Guinness book record holder as a person who made a parachute jump from a height of 10 kilometers. There is hardly a daredevil who, of his own free will, decides to surpass her result.

Russian plane crash in Egypt

One of the hottest topics in autumn 2015 was the plane crash in Egypt. Today, “are there any survivors” is no longer the most important question in this tragedy. If at first there were rumors that not all of the 224 people died, now this is a sad fact.

Today, the public is interested in the cause of the death of the airliner, and the guarantee that this will no longer happen to Russian aircraft.

Completely different versions of what happened are presented by Russian and foreign media. The airliner, which took off without delay, 23 minutes after takeoff, disappeared from the controllers' radars for unknown reasons.

One of the versions why the survivors of the plane crash in Egypt have not been found is the explosion of the bomb on board. The plane exploded in the sky, so the passengers had practically no chance.

Egyptian authorities claim that the presence of the bomb was not found in the wreckage. These data were published by them after experts from the USA, England and Russia came to a different conclusion.

The only reason for the inconsistency of the experts' conclusions is Egypt's unwillingness to lose potential customers in tourist season and pay compensation to the Kogalymavia company for the plane crash in its airspace. If there were survivors, they would also receive compensation for the damage.

It is to be expected what agreement both sides will come to, but, looking back at the history of aeronautics, we can say that planes do not just fall apart in the air and do not disappear from the radar. There are no final conclusions yet, but the world community understands what caused the plane crash in Egypt today. Are there any survivors, the answer to this question is unequivocal - “no”.

positive statistics

Knowing the meticulousness of scientists in their desire to calculate and measure everything, there is no doubt that they also studied the question of why people do not survive in a plane crash.

The reason is actually the most banal - all the same human factor. If we take the statistics of changes in the causes of aircraft crashes since 1908, then it will look like this:

• at the dawn of aircraft construction from 1908 to 1929. 50% of crashes were due to technical problems, 30% to weather, 10% is fire and 10% is pilot error;
• by the second half of the 20th century air fleet came up with different statistics - 24% are related to technology, 25% - the weather is to blame, pilot error - 37%, fire - 7%, and terrorist attacks occupy only 5%;
• in the 21st century, statistics have completely changed - 45% - the culprit is the human factor, 13% - the weather, 32% - technical problems, fire - 3%, and terrorist attacks occupy 4% of cases.

This is how the causes of air disasters in the air have changed in 100 years. Nevertheless, today it is the safest form of transportation, because crashes occur with a probability of 0.00001%. In addition, more and more facts are appearing when not 1 person survives a plane crash, but a significant part of the passengers.

For example, 4 people survived in a plane crash that occurred in Japan in 1985. 12 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft suffered a depressurization in the tail compartment. The pilots managed to keep the car in the air for 32 minutes, after which the board crashed 100 km from the capital of Japan. As the survivors said, there could have been more rescued, as people asked for help, but by the time the rescuers arrived, who were in no hurry at all, 520 people were dead. They were killed by hypothermia and wounds received during the fall.

Unfortunately, information about the saved does not always correspond to the truth. So it was when it was reported that 4 people had survived a plane crash over Egypt. In this case, one can only sympathize with people who found hope for a miracle, but then lost it again.

IN Russian history Aviation also has examples when passengers survived the crash of the liner. So, the people who survived the Kogalymavia plane crash in 2011 when the plane caught fire, which was just taxiing to runway, received Of the 116 passengers and 6 crew members, only three people died, while the Tu-154 completely burned down.

Now there are a lot of articles and interviews with pilots on the Internet, with stories about how planes fly with hundreds of interesting and sensible posts on the topic of aviation. However, this area is still covered with a bunch of myths, conjectures, etc. According to my funny statistics, many passengers do not trust the pilots, despite the fact that they are directly involved in the control of the aircraft.

I would like to talk about what is happening in the aircraft while the cockpit is trying to solve a technical problem. Still, flight attendants are in the cabin with passengers and take part in preparations for landing. We are something between a pilot and a passenger - a link: we know something, but we cannot influence the situation.

In my life, there was exactly one return to the airport of departure due to a technical problem, but the reason was quite serious. There were many other things, but so far there is only one return. The morning began as usual: the crew arrived at the airport, passed the medical control and proceeded to check the aircraft. After completing all the necessary procedures, the commander gave readiness to the aircraft and after a while passengers were brought to us. The plane is serviceable, the food is loaded, the passengers are fastened. Flight attendants take their places, the commander reports readiness for takeoff. Takeoff, takeoff, climb. After a while, the “fasten your seat belts” sign went out, and we started serving the carts.

They say that when you know every sound in an airplane, then even without instruments you can understand that something is wrong. I can’t speak about it with certainty, but I had a feeling of “something wrong” only because I have experience in piloting the aircraft on my own and because I knew the exit routes from this particular airport.

I hesitated a little, not knowing whether to put the carts back. The crew was silent, the display did not light up, but it was obvious to me that offering tea to the crew or going to feed the passengers was a bad idea. Just in case, I removed the insert with prepared drinks and began to wait for the command. They opened the cabin door for me. Failure was on the dashboard, the 2nd pilot read the QRH, the commander turned the course to reverse side. In the cockpit there was a lively radio exchange and negotiations within the crew.

The commander threw a quick glance at me:

Are we returning?

Tell passengers?

No, I'll tell you myself, get ready for landing, now let's turn on the belts, everything is normal.

They began to remove the carts and everything that was already prepared for service. The fasten seat belt sign lit up: “Dear ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately, due to technical reasons, we cannot continue our flight to our destination. To ensure your safety, I have decided to return to the airport of departure. Please take your seats and fasten your seat belts, and don’t worry, the boarding will take place as usual.”

The fun begins not only for the milking of the pilots, but also for the flight attendants. It is necessary to quickly fasten the passengers, answer their questions as briefly as possible and reassure the worried ones. The task is not easy, because, "What happened?" almost everyone asks, but there is nothing to answer, and moreover, there is no time. Some of the passengers began to panic, although for the most part we were lucky with them. My colleague from another airline had a return with running out of fuel over the airport, and the passengers were children with their parents who flew to Anapa and the plane was full.

She said that the panic on board was terrible, the children were sick and generally it was difficult to defuse the situation.

We safely returned to the airport of departure, then the airline resolved the issue of replacing the aircraft and repairing the returned one, etc., etc.

Was it scary? No, but it was annoying. To be honest, I realized that something was not right just because I have little experience in piloting aircraft. The passengers did not understand anything until the commander reported the breakdown.

What is happening in the cockpit at this moment? Work and nothing more.

What is the moral of this fable?

1. If there is similar situation, as I described above, do not ask the conductors what happened, but simply follow their requests. With a high degree of probability, you still will not be able to influence the situation and even assess how serious this failure is. Moreover, most likely the crew did not have time to explain what happened.

2. No, this is not a bad plane and not an airline: there are things that cannot be checked on the ground. For example, it is difficult to check the landing gear retraction on the ground, but in the air you can understand that the wheels do not go away. Yes, planes sometimes break down. Like any equipment, they require repair and maintenance. And they break not only here in Russia. Checked personally. We do have service issues though.

3. Not all failures end in disaster. Not all, but rather a few.

4. Pilots also want to live, they have families, children and relatives, so it is unlikely that someone will fly on a faulty plane “at random”.

All safe flights, friends!

In the special literature, there is the concept of a "competent passenger" - a person who makes the most of his chances of salvation in an emergency.

In 1974, during the crash of the B-707 aircraft in Pago Dago in Samoa, out of a hundred and one passengers, only five survived, who later said that they carefully read the memo and listened to the instructions of the stewardess.

Therefore, to save them, they took advantage of the emergency exits to the wing, while other passengers staged a stampede, rushing to the traditional entrance-exit. The commission stated that most passengers would have been saved if they simply knew where the emergency hatches were and how to use them.

Today, the aircraft is one of the most safe species transport. This is true, but only within the framework of statistics. It should be added that while it is still possible to escape from a car accident or a train crash, a plane crash usually means the death of all passengers on board.

When on January 26, 1972, a bomb exploded on board a JAT DC-9 aircraft, and the wreckage of the liner collapsed from a height of more than 10 km, it was clear to everyone that none of the passengers escaped. However, the flight attendant Vesna Vulovich survived. How could this happen? Some believe that Vesna Vulovich was saved by the fact that she had low blood pressure - she quickly lost consciousness, and this saved her from a heart attack. Others simply believe that a miracle happened. As a result of the disaster, Vulovich herself developed amnesia - she does not remember either the explosion itself, or even what happened an hour before it. Therefore, it is unlikely that we will ever know the truth about this unusual case. Unusual because it has never happened before that someone survived the crash of a plane flying so high.

Most often, a plane crash in which someone survived is an unsuccessful takeoff of an airplane or an emergency landing. The forces acting in such cases are not as destructive as, for example, when two planes collide, tanks full of fuel explode, or fall from a great height. However, there is always a chance to survive, and it depends on many factors.

If you look at pictures of air crashes, then they often show how the tail of the aircraft sticks out of the wreckage, sometimes even intact. It is the tail that touches the ground last of all during the fall, so the passenger sitting in the back has greatest chance stay alive. The dimensions of the aircraft also matter: the larger the car, the safer it is.

IN passenger aircraft no, as, for example, in fighters, a catapult for the pilot; also, you can not escape from a falling plane by parachute. Everything that is in passenger airliners, serves solely to avoid bodily injury, which can be received in the cabin during the flight.

Unlike a car, an aircraft, flying into a stationary structure or any vehicle, usually does not stop, but rushes on. Therefore, passengers are not subjected to sudden impacts. An exception to this would be when the plane collides with a mountain. In this case, the chances of salvation are minimal.

In other cases, in the event of an in-flight emergency, the crew may decide to forced landing, which is quite likely in a deserted area. At the same time, if conditions allow and the aircraft is controllable, they try to land on a relatively flat area without obstacles, and in extreme cases, on a forest. At the same time, injuries and the number of victims increase, but if the plane does not fall apart immediately and does not burn, then the chances of salvation increase.

There are several basic types of emergencies. In the air, in order to act correctly in them, one must not only know how to behave, but also mentally make a path to salvation in advance. This gives more chances that in a dangerous moment your memory will not fail you.

• Takeoff and landing accidents

It is unlikely that you will be warned about an accident of this kind in advance. Therefore, the most reasonable tactic is preliminary personal safety measures before each takeoff and landing. For example, be in outerwear: a coat or jacket (not synthetics!) Can protect you from burns if you have to get out of a fire. Stay in your shoes, even if they are high heels, in case you have to walk over debris, burning plastic, etc.

A woman should take off her high-heeled shoes only in front of the inflatable ladder, without blocking the path to evacuation for other passengers and not letting go of her shoes in order to immediately put on shoes on the ground. Of course, you need to take off your tie, scarf, glasses, hairpins, etc. - V extreme situation even a fountain pen in the side pocket of a jacket is dangerous. Before each takeoff and landing, carefully adjust the seat belt. It should be firmly fixed as low as possible at your hips. Check if you have heavy suitcases over your head.

Just before an accident, it is usually possible to assume a safe, fixed position. It is usually recommended to bend over and clasp your hands tightly under your knees (or grab your ankles). The head should be laid on your knees, and if this does not work, tilt it as low as possible. The legs should be rested on the floor, extending them as far as possible (but not under the front seat, which can jam in an accident).

The US Federal Aviation Administration recommends using the seat in front of you for another fixed position. On the back of the chair, you should put your hands in a crossed state and press your head to your hands. Also stretch your legs and rest. And, of course, both poses can only be taken with a fastened belt. At the moment of impact, you should strain as much as possible and prepare for a significant overload. Its direction in most accidents is forward and maybe down.

As a rule, emergency exits are located on the left and right sides of the fuselage. All exits for passengers, approaches to them and means of opening are clearly marked from a distance, which facilitates their detection. The flight attendant tells about the location of all exits from the cabin in a brief instruction. Leaving all the pre-landing worries, listen to her carefully. Be sure to mentally imagine your way to the nearest exit. And if you're sitting next to escape hatch, then you have an additional responsibility: the life of many people depends on whether you can open it. However, it is not always possible to open the nearest exit (flame outside, deformation of the fuselage in this place, etc.), so you need to remember all the ways to escape.

Takeoff and landing accidents are usually sudden, and you may not wait for the crew to warn you, so be aware of all the events overboard (smoke, sudden descent, engine shutdown, etc.) in order to take a fixed position. However, under no circumstances leave your seat until the plane comes to a complete stop, do not panic. Only a professional can judge with certainty about the danger of what is happening.

One of the most frequent accidents on board an aircraft is bruises and other injuries sustained during turbulence.

Turbulence- these are various eddies and air currents, randomly moving inside the atmosphere in various directions. Over half of the cases of turbulence occur with an aircraft at an altitude of over 6 thousand meters, 30% - at an altitude of up to 3 thousand meters and 5-10% - in the range from 3 to 6 thousand meters. Most often this happens in sunny days over houses or over an area with a strong temperature contrast (sand, forest, lake, road) - the earth's surface warms up unevenly, and the heated air masses rise up from different speed, which can cause the aircraft to take off in updrafts or fall into air pockets.

This is exactly what happened to the Boeing 747 of American Airlines, which flew over Pacific Ocean December 28, 1997. Once in the turbulent zone, the huge machine instantly lost several tens of meters in height. All loose objects on board immediately took off, hit the ceiling and fell on the heads of the passengers sitting in the chairs. The most severely injured were those of the people who, although they were sitting in their seats, were not wearing seat belts. The plane itself was not injured and continued to fly, but one woman died as a result of her injuries, and the remaining 100 wounded required medical attention.

Since airplanes fly at altitudes where the air is highly discharged and its pressure is much lower than usual, the cabin of the airliner must be airtight - as soon as the slightest crack appears, all the air will escape from the aircraft through it, and this is very dangerous. Therefore, most modern aircraft are equipped with oxygen masks that automatically hover over each passenger seat in the event of a cabin depressurization, and the pilots immediately begin to lower the flight altitude.

Information about an impending disaster, nervousness of the crew, smoke or fire escaping from the engines - all this can cause panic. First, never lose your head. It is advisable to get acquainted with all the emergency systems that are on the plane even before the start. It is worth considering your own evacuation plan - find out where the emergency exit, and figure out what can be done in the event of a disaster.

If there is a threat emergency landing, you need to get rid of sharp objects (pencils, pens, etc.); it would be nice to have something soft (like a pillow) to protect your head.

Decompression(rarefied air in an airplane). Rapid decompression usually begins with a deafening roar (air escapes). The salon is filled with dust and fog. Visibility drops sharply. Air quickly leaves the lungs of a person and cannot be retained. At the same time, ringing in the ears and pain in the intestines (gases expand) are likely.

Don your oxygen mask immediately without waiting for a command or assistance from the crew. The flight attendant will tell you where it is located and how to use it at the beginning of the flight. The mask must be put on, and not just pressed against the nose and mouth - even with the incoming oxygen, you can lose consciousness and drop the mask. For the same reason, you should not help someone before you put on a mask yourself, even if it is your child: if you do not have time to help yourself, both of you will be without oxygen.

Decompression is an emergency that the crew immediately begins to correct by lowering the flight altitude. Below three thousand meters, the oxygen content can already be considered normal. Therefore, if there are signs of decompression, immediately after putting on the mask, fasten your seat belts and prepare for sharp decline or "hard" landing.

Fire on board the aircraft. Most passengers estimate that during a fire overboard they will have about five minutes after landing to leave the plane. However, experience shows that it is better to count on one or two minutes. Approximately 20% of aircraft accidents are accompanied by fires; over 70% of people involved in air crashes with fires remain alive.

It is very important to remember the location of the exits. In case of fire, this is also necessary because the smoke interferes not only with breathing, but also with seeing signs. And most importantly, in case of fire, immediately after the plane stops, go to the nearest exit. Wherein:

Water landing

The passenger, who has every chance of being rescued from a water landing, should have some idea of ​​the position in which the aircraft is buoyant even before it lands on the water. Some aircraft float horizontally, others with their tails submerged, and some with their noses submerged.

Knowing this, you will not rush in a panic to the emergency exit at the rear of the aircraft if this exit is under water. You should also know in advance which water rescue equipment (vests, rafts, etc.) are on board, where they are located and how to use them. Before sinking, the aircraft can be afloat from 10 to 40 minutes. However, if the fuselage is damaged, this time may be significantly shorter.

After splashing down, life rafts should be launched, which inflate automatically when dropped. If this does not happen, then you need to pull the halyard with a strong jerk, which leads to the cylinder of the gas filling system. The time to bring the raft into working condition takes about one minute in summer and three minutes in winter.

Aircraft crashes show two dangerous types of passenger behavior - panic and apathy. Oddly enough, torpor is much more common. This must be remembered in order to prevent such a reaction in oneself and under no circumstances stop the struggle for one's salvation.

How to survive a plane crash on the ground. Ed Galea, a professor from Australia who survived a plane crash, thought about how you can improve your own chances of survival. The most important thing is to never forget that the plane can get into an accident. Naturally, we are not talking about a plane crashing from a great height - it is almost impossible to survive in a car falling from a height of 10 thousand meters, however, the number of incidents that occur already on the ground is much higher, and do not forget that they also die People. At the same time, according to statistics, in the period from 1983 to 2000 in aviation accidents in the US, 95% of the passengers survived. For example, in 2005 on board the liner Air France, caught fire during landing at the Toronto airport, there were 309 people, and all survived. This incident was called the Miracle in Toronto.

Ed Galea in 1985 was on board a plane that, as it happens, went off the runway and caught fire. This accident killed 55 passengers flying with him. Since then, he has been dealing with the rules of survival on board. During his work, he interviewed more than 2,000 survivors of 105 aviation accidents. Based on their experience, he deduced a number of simple rules:

• When traveling with family, stick together

Half of all air passengers travel in a group - most often with family members. Naturally, in an extreme situation, people try to find their loved ones in order to escape together. If the family is divided in the cabin, then in the event of an accident, people will not be saved, but will look for each other. If a fire is raging in the cabin, then every extra minute in the smoke reduces the chances of survival many times over.

Therefore, a family, especially with children, must be together and at the same time be prepared in advance to be divided. If this is a family of two adults and two children, then Galea advises to proceed as follows: “For example, one adult will be responsible for one child, and another for another. Thus, you already have two groups of two people. If necessary, these groups should be prepared to evacuate separately.”

Another actionable tip: "Every child should know which parent will be looking for him in an emergency." Of course, explaining to a child before a flight how to behave in an accident is extremely unpleasant, but it can save his life.

• Know how to unfasten your seat belt

It may seem like overkill, but the passenger should understand and rehearse how to unfasten the seat belt before flying. Surprisingly, in an emergency, even the crew of the ship can not always quickly get rid of the belts. Do not forget that aviation seat belts do not unfasten in the same way as car seat belts. Extra seconds in the cabin, spent in the fight against the belt, can cost lives.

• Sit closer to the aisle and count the seats to the exit

In fact, the plane has absolutely no safe places. Seats in the tail of the liner can be fatal if the fire breaks out there, so general rules when choosing seats does not exist. However, there are some tips.

In this case, it would be safest to sit against the course of the aircraft, but this is not possible on passenger aircraft, although this rule has long been applied on military transports. The problem is that most people prefer to sit on the move, besides, the refurbishment of the cabins of the liners will require huge investments and a complete refurbishment of the cabin.

However, this rule can be applied to rail travel. It is always better to sit against the train, and at the same time it is desirable so that there are no people or objects opposite that, during sudden braking, could cause injury to a person.

• Get a smoke hood

“The smoke contains harmful and narcotic gases, irritants. It is enough to inhale a certain dose, and you will die,” says Galea. Therefore, he takes a portable smoke hood with him on any trip. However, do not forget that you also need to be able to use it, and it should lie as close as possible. The extra time spent searching and trying to open and put it on may not save, but, on the contrary, kill.

• Grouping and preparation

It is very important not to neglect the information that flight attendants provide before the flight. Careful study of the card, which communicates the rules of evacuation, can really save a life.

The grouping - a position that is recommended to be taken in an emergency - may seem ridiculous or stupid, but it is designed to save the passenger from the worst thing in an accident on the ground and a fire - from losing consciousness. In the event of sudden braking or a collision with a ground obstacle, an ungrouped person is likely to receive a head injury, which with a high degree of probability will lead to loss of consciousness. In a panic in a fire, no one will save an unconscious person, therefore, if you do not take care of yourself, the chances of survival will be minimal.

US National Transportation Safety Board(National Transportation Safety Board) offers the following recommendations:

How to avoid becoming a victim of car thieves

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It is easier to believe in magic than to understand how a person manages to lift a multi-ton iron bird into the sky. Ignorance breeds fear of the unknown. Therefore, many pilots and other airline employees are happy to tell what is really worth fearing and why airplanes are wonderful!

website chose 16 understandable answers to the most exciting and difficult questions that interest everyone who has seen an airplane at least once in their life.

16. How to get to the pilots if their door is locked from the inside?

There is a special code that the flight attendant dials to get into the cockpit. This is necessary for cases when, for example, both pilots have lost consciousness. The commander before the flight learns the code and informs the crew of it. After entering the code, the door will open within a minute, but only if the pilots take no action. If the pilot sees through a video camera that a non-crew member is standing at the door, then he completely blocks the door, and the attacker cannot get inside.

15. Are pilots allowed to wear bushy mustaches or piercings?

The beard, bushy mustache, piercings, and any other decorations and "growths" on the face prevent the pilot from using an oxygen mask, which must fit snugly over the face. Therefore, the pilot's face is always clean, sometimes slightly unshaven is allowed. Otherwise, a situation is created that endangers the lives of passengers.

14. What happens if all engines fail?

During each flight, the aircraft switches to a mode in which . If in a car with a manual transmission to shift the lever to neutral, going down the hill, it will be the same. Complete engine failure is extremely rare, and in this case there is a special instruction for restarting them.

But also without engines, the plane can land on a gliding descent. Most famous case happened to a Boeing 747 over Java in 1982, when the plane was caught in a cloud of dust from an erupting volcano and all 4 engines failed. The crew managed to land the plane at the nearest airport, and none of the 263 people was injured.

13. How long do oxygen masks last?

The oxygen level and pressure inside the aircraft are maintained artificially. If cabin depressurization occurs on high altitude, a person develops hypoxia: he loses consciousness and can die without an oxygen mask.

Oxygen. This time is enough for the pilot to lower the plane to a height where you can breathe normally. The pilot has his own stationary oxygen mask , designed for more time- to lower and even land the plane without losing concentration. Before each flight, pilots check the performance of their masks.

12. Do pilots sleep at the controls?

Approximately 56% of pilots accidentally fall asleep during the flight, although it is better to say they can doze off. Fortunately, modern aircraft almost all the time they work in autopilot mode, and controllers require constant feedback from pilots.

On long-haul flights, two crews or three pilots can work at once, replacing each other with a break for rest. The pilot, having worked his shift, sleeps in a special cabin. It is important that the crew is constantly in touch with the controllers and that at least one pilot controls the flight.

11. Why does the plane go around?

This . An aircraft may go-around for various reasons, such as runway some object or animal, a strong side wind is blowing, or the airport is temporarily closed for an urgent landing of a special aircraft.

Passengers are worried because the plane suddenly gains altitude before the long-awaited landing, but in fact everything is under control - this is the standard way of go-around.

10. What nationality does a child born on an airplane get?

Exists . This will be the passport.

• the country where the airline of the aircraft on which the birth took place is registered;
• the country over which he was born;
• country where the aircraft landed.

In most cases, in practice, the first option is obtained, but the decision is made by the airline, taking into account the current legislation. Some airlines give kids a bonus as a gift: the opportunity to fly free of charge on their planes anywhere in the world for life.

9. Can an airplane land on autopilot?

In modern aircraft, control systems guide the aircraft along the route from a height of 300 meters and almost to a full landing on runway. During landing, auto landing can be used, but the pilot needs to activate this mode and monitor it by setting certain landing configurations.

Already before a direct landing on the runway, the aircraft is directed by the course-glide path system: the airport radio beacon guides the aircraft, correcting its path. This system works even if the aircraft is completely de-energized.

8. Hard landing on water or on land - which is safer?

7. How do pilots eat during the flight?

For pilots, a separate menu is prepared with several dishes to choose from: if the commander wants chicken, then the co-pilot will get fish or meat for lunch. This The best way avoid poisoning with the same products. Pilots take turns eating, some right behind the wheel at special tables.

But there are airlines where this rule is not respected and pilots can get the same portion of food as passengers.

6. Why do pilots sometimes fly in the cabin with passengers?

Sometimes, as part of their work, pilots fly with passengers from one airport to another. If they are on board in uniform, then with passengers they will sleep, eat or watch movies with headphones. The sight of a pilot in uniform during such activities can be misleading and lead to panic among passengers. But more often, uniformed pilots fly in spare seats in the cockpit or in first class.

5. What is more terrible - crashing into a bird, getting hit by hail or getting struck by lightning?

Lightning often hits the plane, but the passengers do not even notice it. In extremely rare cases, this can lead to a blackout of the aircraft. In this case, the pilots have several instructions that literally reset the electronics on board, and the flight continues as usual.

Birds represent great danger than it seems. Entry into a fan or turbine can result in engine destruction, failure, and even fire. Not every windshield will survive

From glancing nervously at the fuel gauge in an emergency to breaking a crew member's arm during turbulence, an experienced pilot has shared the things that scared him the most when flying. He also told what it is worth and what passengers should not be afraid of and how they should behave during an emergency.

Steve Landells, now 50, has been a pilot for 27 years civil aviation in 17 companies, including british airways. He now works as a safety officer for the British Airline Pilots Association.

In an interview with The Independent, he explained why controlling the amount of fuel left is so important. “Once we were flying from Cairo to Heathrow, there was a malfunction in the air traffic control computers on the ground,” says Landells.

“It turned out that not a single plane that was preparing to take off could take to the skies. Because of this, there was no place for landing arriving aircraft. Flights had to be diverted to other UK airports and even to Amsterdam. We were asked to stay in the air for four hours. We reported that there was not enough fuel, ”the pilot says.

When preparing for a flight, pilots calculate how much fuel they need in case of emergencies. The amount of fuel that is enough for the last half hour of the flight is called the last reserve, he says.

On that ill-fated day, ground services, fortunately, quickly orientated themselves and Landells' plane was given priority to land at one of the airports on British Isles. In his entire career, he never had to empty the tanks of an aircraft to a critical level.

But a pilot's biggest enemy, he says, is the weather. As cautionary tale for those who blatantly ignore the flight attendants' demand to fasten their seat belts, Landells recalls how a colleague broke his arm during severe turbulence while the plane was flying from Heathrow to Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. The shaking lasted only five seconds, but the injured crew member was not wearing his seatbelt.

“We can adjust the decision on departures based on the weather forecast, but turbulence cannot be predicted. You can learn about it only when you get into it, ”the pilot complains. Turbulence may not lead to a plane crash, he notes, but the risk of injury is very real.

But when lightning strikes a plane, people on board can see a strong flash, but this natural phenomenon, for all its spectacularity, is not dangerous for a flying plane.

The strange buzzing sounds on approach that cause some impressionable passengers to dig their white fingers into the armrests are usually just flaps extending.

Landells, who now flies as a passenger, says he listens carefully to the safety message before every flight: “If something happens, I want to know where the exit is right away, not look for it. I also always have credit card and a phone in your pocket - these things may be necessary if you have to urgently evacuate.