Safe travel on planes and trains - where is safest to sit?

[mkjuk]

I'm guessing on trains near the middle and facing away from the direction of travel - anyone know for sure where is safest to sit on planes and trains??

[gary baldy]

blue virgin - there is an element of childish arguing for arguments sake (all on my part i might add) going on here.
I'm sure you are very qualified to talk about this and i'm just a ranting nut case i accept that
BUT
can you as a professional honestly say, hand on heart, that if a large commercial jet airliner (which is frankly the only type of aircraft the vast majority of us only ever fly in) comes down anywhere other than on a runway (in an uncontrolled manner - mechanical failure, running out of fuel, hijacker hitting the pilot with an axe etc) you are likely to die?
Yes or no answer please.

[blue virgin]

I'm afraid there is no yes or no answer to that question. There are just too many variables involved. If an aircraft comes down on a runway in an "uncontrolled" manner, it's possible everyone could die. Alternatively, it could land in the sea, in a controlled manner, and everyone survive. It's more about why it crashes, rather than where sometimes.

There have been accidents where everybody should have died, but some survived against all odds, and there are other examples of where people died who really shouldn't have. If the aircraft in under control when it touched down, there is a good chance you'll get out. IF, you've been watching the safety demo.......

[gammaray]

An expert of Richard & Judy.....No, really!?

[brachiopod]

Have to agree with many of the answers here.

There is no 'yes or no' answer to this one. - there are many variables, causes and consequences in accidents, even whether the aircraft came down in a 'controlled' or 'uncontrolled' manner doesn't have necessarily have any bearing on the outcome.

An aifcraft that lands with, say, no control surfaces but by differential engine power alone could be said to be 'uncontrolled', but performed successfully, is survivable.

Meanwhile, the industry euphemism known as CFIT accounts for many air-accident fatalities. CFIT is Controlled Flight Into Terrain - you and I might call it 'flying into a mountain'.

[Clanad]

Well, brachiopod, your knowledge base extends beyond geo-synclines and anticlines... I'm definitely impressed! CFIT is the cause de jour... as you explain... it's been around a long time, actually since Wilbur and Orville, but a new acronym spruces it up, don't you agree?

[brachiopod]

Thanks, Clanad, but I don't quite have the practical experience that you have.
Though I do try to learn enough to tell my CFIT's from my CVR's or (as it is here in the UK) CHIRP's.

Perhaps I'd better keep to my ductile shear-zones?

[brachiopod]

....that was meant to read;

"..CFIT's from my CVR's and CHIRP's.."

....no connection between the last two implied. (I think the US equivalent of the lattter is either ASRS or AASRS?)

Maybe I should stick to geology !!