THE plane crash at Turkey's Sabiha Gokcen Airport in Istanbul yesterday left three people dead and 179 injured after the aircraft snapped into three following a rough landing.
But instead of making us less sure of flying by plane, one crash expert believes that the high survival rate from such a devastating collision proves how safe planes have become during a crash.
Christine Negroni, a crash expert and author of the book The Crash Detectives told Sun Online Travel: "Although almost everyone on this plane was injured and there were three deaths, you still have to look at the plane – how it was in three parts, the fire and everything – and be impressed by the level of survivability in modern aircraft.
"As tragic as this accident is with three deaths, we have to look at it and think that ten to 15 years ago, you wouldn’t even have had that many survivors from a crash like this.
"This is a huge advance in aviation safety."
Christine puts this down to three key changes to modern aeroplanes; in seats, cabin materials and fire prevention.
The US National Transportation Safety Board reviewed national aviation accidents from 1983-1999 and found that 95 per cent of people onboard survived accidents, and according to Christine that number would probably be even higher now.
She said:"How much a passenger is protected from the impact of the crash has dramatically improved because of improvements to the seatbelts, the seats and how the seats are attached to the floor of the plane.
"Impact protection used to have to be able to withstand nine times the force of gravity and now that has been increased to 16 times.
"Seats had to be made more robust and the attachment planks between the chairs and the floor strengthened, as well as what pressure the seat backs could take without collapsing.
"The seats are now more likely to keep you in place and stop you from hitting something.
"This protection for your extremities becomes very important because if you can’t get out of your seat you can’t get to safety, and then that also prevents people sitting nearer the window from getting out."
In the last forty years, there have also been great advances in fire safety, with all kinds of new materials added to the market that will self-extinguish a fire, or if the material smokes it will release non-toxic smoke.
According to Christine, these changes came not long after a plane crash in Manchester in 1985, where there were 55 deaths after a plane caught fire before take-off – were mainly due to smoke inhalation.
But until recently, airlines kept planes in service for so long that it was not unusual to fly on a 35-year-old aircraft, so although the new rules and products had been around for at least 20 years many planes did not comply.
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