You Survived a Plane Crash! Now What?Don't move.
Posted Thursday, July 2, 2009, at 6:01 PM ET
Agence France-Presse reported yesterday that Bahia Bakari, a 12-year-old girl from Comoros, is the lone survivor of Tuesday's Yemenia airlines crash. She clung to debris for 10 hours before being rescued. If your plane crashes and you find yourself floating in the ocean, what should you do?
Stay put. The biggest mistake stranded victims make is trying to swim. Body heat naturally creates a warm envelope of water around your person. Assuming you've crashed fully dressed, your clothes will help trap that envelope. But swimming—or panicked flailing—tends to flush out that insulating layer of water. It also needlessly depletes energy stores. Using the body's natural buoyancy is a better strategy. If you have a flotation device of some sort—a seat cushion or buoyant debris—just hang on tight. If not, you should float on your back with arms and legs extended. This technique won't work in rough seas, though, because waves will constantly crash onto your face. In that scenario, it is best to stay vertical with your head submerged, surfacing occasionally to take a breath. (This strategy, called "drown-proofing," should never be attempted in cold water because it significantly increases the risk of hypothermia. In cold, rough seas, treading water is unavoidable.)
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StumbleUponThere are only three reasons to swim. First, if you see buoyant debris, go for it. Second, if there are other survivors, you should congregate to share body heat and increase visibility to rescue crews. Third, the crash site can be a very threatening environment. Fire is common in downed airliners, and smoke and fumes can kill a would-be survivor in short order. There is often a massive pool of poisonous jet fuel around the plane as well. Crash survivors should get clear of these dangers by swimming upwind of the crash site and out of the range of any visible fuel. But don't go too far—rescuers will look near the crash site first.
Once clear of the crash site and floating comfortably, the victim can start thinking about rescue. A lone plane crash survivor likely won't have much in the way of signaling devices, but a shiny object might do the trick. If a helicopter or other search craft appears, make a V shape with your index and middle finger and sight the rescuers through it. Using your other hand, catch the light on the shiny object and direct it into the V.
Worried about sharks? You are far more likely to die of hypothermia, drowning, exposure, or dehydration. But if you are an incurable selachophobe, you can minimize your risk by abstaining from bodily discharge (urine, feces, or vomit). If you can't hold it any longer, release it in small doses, letting it dissipate before releasing more.
Got a question about today's news? Ask the Explainer.
Explainer thanks Garnet A. McLean of the Federal Aviation Administration.
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If your plane does have a controlled landing in a body of water, don't open a door at the low end of the plane! People on the flight that landed in the Hudson did just that, and the water rushed in faster than they could get to the higher doorway. Many of them were wading through waist-high water before they could get out. If anybody had been disabled, unconscious, or just had a problem with their seat belt, they could have drowned as the result of this silly mistake.
Absent a fire and any holes in the plane, you have time to follow crew instructions or at least think for a few seconds before you panic and do something stupid like that. Once somebody opens a door below the water surface, you are sitting in a metal boat with a gigantic leak.
-- Pondering It All
(To reply, click here)
"People on the flight that landed in the Hudson did just that, and the water rushed in faster than they could get to the higher doorway."
True, but not cause and effect. If you check the seat card on the A320, you'll find it authorizes use of all exits for a water landing (unlike some other types I've ridden recently). However, in the Hudson event, damage to the aircraft created water ingress paths to the cabin without needing assistance from the passengers. They would still have been in deep had the rear door not been opened.
The better advice would be to reinforce what the cartoon on the seat card already tries to say: always look outside before opening any emergency exit. There could be fire, too long a drop for the slide to handle etc. Besides the threat of excellent reasons not to leave that way, you might even wish to open a hole that way.
-- Archae86
(To reply, click here)