Aviation Expert Assesses Safest Place to Sit on Plane

When picking your seat on a plane, you may not even give a moment's thought to which ones are the safest. If so, that's just fine, writes aviation expert Doug Drury in the Conversation. For one thing, flying remains incredibly safe. For another, crashes are so random that predicting which set of passengers might fare better than others is impossible. Still, a fearful flyer who feels compelled to play the odds might buy a ticket for the middle seat in the back row, writes Drury. He bases the analysis on a Time investigation that found middle-seat passengers in the rear had the lowest fatality rates in accidents—28%.

That compares favorably to the 44% fatality rate for those in the middle third of the cabin. Drury runs through the likely reasons. If safety is a paramount factor, it's best to sit next to an exit row. But the middle exit rows aren't a great choice because fuel is stored in the wings, and the front exit rows aren't great because the front of the plane might take the brunt of the crash. That leaves the rear exit row. As for choosing the middle seat, the passengers on your left and right might provide a "buffer" of sorts in the event of an accident. Having said all that, Drury thinks passengers choosing their seats shouldn't worry too much about safety and instead be "thinking about which movie you'll watch instead." (More air travel stories.)