A plane crash where everyone survived. Amazing stories of the only survivors of plane crashes. Why do people die

(Collected from various Internet sites)

Alexander Andryukhin

If what happens in the cockpit during a disaster can be judged from the records of the flight recorders, then there are no “black boxes” in the cabin. Izvestia tracked down several people who survived plane crashes or were involved in serious flight accidents...

The story of Larisa Savitskaya is included in the Guinness Book of Records. In 1981, at an altitude of 5220 meters, the An-24 plane in which she was flying collided with a military bomber. 37 people died in that disaster. Only Larisa managed to survive.

I was 20 years old then,” says Larisa Savitskaya. - Volodya, my husband, and I were flying from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Blagoveshchensk. We were returning from honeymoon. First we sat in the front seats. But I didn’t like the front, so we moved to the middle. After takeoff, I immediately fell asleep. And I woke up from noise and screams. My face burned with cold. Then they told me that our plane’s wings were cut off and the roof was blown off. But I don’t remember the sky above my head. I remember it was foggy, like in a bathhouse. I looked at Volodya. He didn't move. Blood was gushing down his face. I somehow immediately realized that he was dead. And she prepared to die too. Then the plane fell apart and I lost consciousness. When I came to my senses, I was surprised that I was still alive. I felt like I was lying on something hard. It turned out to be in the aisle between the chairs. And next to it is a whistling abyss. There were no thoughts in my head. Fear too. In the state I was in - between sleep and reality - there is no fear. The only thing I remembered was an episode from an Italian film, where a girl, after a plane crash, soared in the sky among the clouds, and then, falling into the jungle, remained alive. I didn't expect to survive. I just wanted to die without suffering. I noticed the rungs of the metal floor. And I thought: if I fall sideways, it will be very painful. I decided to change position and regroup. Then she crawled to the next row of chairs (our row was near the rift), sat down in the chair, grabbed the armrests and rested her feet on the floor. All this was done automatically. Then I look - the ground. Very close. She grabbed the armrests with all her might and pushed herself away from the chair. Then - like a green explosion from larch branches. And again there was a loss of memory. When I woke up, I saw my husband again. Volodya sat with his hands on his knees and looked at me with a fixed gaze. It was raining, which washed the blood from his face, and I saw a huge wound on his forehead. A dead man and woman lay under the chairs...
Later it was established that the piece of the plane, four meters long and three meters wide, on which Savitskaya fell, glided like an autumn leaf. He fell into a soft, marshy clearing. Larisa lay unconscious for seven hours. Then for two more days I sat in a chair in the rain and waited for death to come. On the third day I got up, started looking for people and came across a search party. Larisa received several injuries, a concussion, a broken arm and five cracks in the spine. You can’t go with such injuries. But Larisa refused the stretcher and walked to the helicopter herself.
The plane crash and the death of her husband remained with her forever. According to her, her feelings of pain and fear are dulled. She is not afraid of death and still flies calmly on airplanes. But her son, who was born four years after the disaster, is terrified of flying.

Arina Vinogradova is one of the two surviving flight attendants of the Il-86 plane, which in 2002, barely taking off, crashed into Sheremetyevo. There were 16 people on board: four pilots, ten flight attendants and two engineers. Only two flight attendants survived: Arina and her friend Tanya Moiseeva.

They say in last seconds Your whole life plays out before your eyes. This didn’t happen to me,” Arina tells Izvestia. - Tanya and I were sitting in the first row of the third cabin, at the emergency exit, but not in service chairs, but in passenger seats. Tanya is opposite me. The flight was technical - we just needed to return to Pulkovo. At some point the plane began to shake. This happens with IL-86. But for some reason I realized that we were falling. Although nothing seemed to happen, there was no siren or roll. I didn't have time to get scared. Consciousness instantly floated away somewhere, and I fell into a black void. I woke up from a sharp jolt. At first I didn’t understand anything. Then I gradually figured it out. It turned out that I was lying on a warm engine, littered with chairs. I couldn't unfasten myself. She started screaming, pounding on the metal and disturbing Tanya, who then raised her head and then lost consciousness again. The firefighters pulled us out and took us to different hospitals.
Arina still works as a flight attendant. The plane crash, she said, did not leave any trauma in her soul. However, what happened had a very strong impact on Tatyana Moiseeva. Since then, she no longer flies, although she has not left aviation. She still works in the flight attendant squad, but now as a dispatcher. She doesn’t even tell her close friends about what she experienced.

The Lyceum group is known throughout the country. But few people know that two singers from this group - Anna Pletneva and Anastasia Makarevich - also survived the fall on the plane.

This happened about five years ago,” Anna Pletneva tells Izvestia. “I was always terrified of flying by plane, but now I became brave.” I flew with Nastya Makarevich to Spain. We had a great time. In a cheerful mood we returned to Moscow on a Boeing 767. The neighbors were with the child. The minute we started descending and the flight attendants told us to fasten our seat belts, the child was in my arms. And then the plane went down sharply. Things fell on their heads, the flight attendants shouted: “Hold the children! Bend down!” I realized that we were falling and hugged the baby to me. A thought flashed through my head: “Is this really all?” I used to think that when it’s so scary, my heart should be pounding. But in reality you don’t feel the heart. You don’t feel yourself, but you look at everything as if from the outside. The worst thing is hopelessness. You can't influence anything. But there was no panic like they show in the movies. Deathly silence. Everyone, as if in a dream, buckled up and froze. Some prayed, some said goodbye to their relatives.
Anna doesn't remember how much time has passed. Maybe seconds... Or minutes.
“Suddenly the plane gradually began to level out,” she recalls, “I looked around: was it really just me? But no, others also perked up... Even when we stopped on the runway, I couldn’t believe that everything ended well. The commander announced: “Congratulations to everyone! We were born in a shirt. Now everything will be fine in your life.”
“What’s surprising is that I’m no longer afraid of flying on airplanes,” she says. - And on charter flights, pilots often let us into the cockpit and let us steer. I like it so much that I want to buy my own small plane in the near future. We will fly it on tour.

Izvestia journalist Georgy Stepanov also survived the fall.

This happened in the summer of 1984, he recalls. - I flew on a Yak-40 plane from Batumi to Tbilisi. When I entered the plane, I felt like I was in a gypsy camp - there were so many things there. They filled all the compartments on top, as well as the passage of the cabin. Don't overcrowd. There were, of course, also more passengers than expected. We took off and gained altitude. Below is the sea. I felt drowsy. But then it was as if someone had hit the fuselage with a sledgehammer, the noise of the turbine became different, and the plane went down sharply, almost vertically. Everyone who was not wearing a seat belt flew off their seats and rolled around the cabin, interspersed with their things. Screams, squeals. A terrible panic began. I was wearing a seat belt. I still remember my state - horror. Everything in me broke down, my body seemed numb. I had the feeling that everything was happening not to me, but that I was somewhere on the side. The only thing I thought was: poor parents, what will happen to them? I could neither scream nor move. Everyone nearby was completely white with fear. Their dead, motionless eyes were striking, as if they were already in another world.
We actually fell for no more than a minute. The plane leveled off: the passengers began to come to their senses and pick up their things. Then, when we were approaching Tbilisi, the pilot came out of the cockpit. He was like a zombie. We began to ask: what happened? In response, he wanted to laugh it off, but somehow it turned out to be a pity; he felt embarrassed for him.
This fall still haunts me to this day. When I board a plane, I feel like a completely helpless creature in an insecure shell.

The world knows more than a dozen cases of happy salvation

No matter how much experts, citing statistics, assure us that air transport is the safest, many are afraid to fly. The earth leaves hope, the height does not. How did those who did not survive the plane crash feel? We will never know. According to research by the Interstate Aviation Committee, the consciousness of a person in a falling plane is switched off. In most cases - in the very first seconds of the fall. At the moment of the collision with the ground, there is not a single person in the cabin who would be conscious. As they say, the body’s defense reaction is triggered.

The ancient Greek poet Theognis wrote: “What is not destined by fate will not happen, but what is destined, I am not afraid of.” There are also cases of miraculous salvation. Larisa Savitskaya is not the only one who survived the plane crash. In 1944, the English pilot Stephen, shot down by the Germans, fell from a height of 5500 meters and survived. In 2003, a Boeing 737 crashed in Sudan. A two-year-old child survived, although the plane was almost completely burned down. The world knows more than a dozen such cases.

From the material of Komsomolskaya Pravda, published after the AN-24 crash at Varandey airport:

24 people survived the disaster, another 28 died.
Many of those rescued are still in shock and refuse to talk. But according to the words of three survivors - Sergei Trefilov, Dmitry Dorokhov and Alexei Abramov - KP correspondents reconstructed what happened in the cabin of the falling plane.

According to official reports, the An-24, tail number 46489, disappeared from radar screens at 13.43 during landing approach.

13.43
Sergey:
- Commander Viktor Popov said over the speakerphone: “Our plane has begun to descend. In a few minutes we will land at the airport in the village of Varandey.” The voice was completely calm. He announced landing in Usinsk in exactly the same way. Immediately the flight attendant walked through the cabin and sat down on a folding chair in the back. Everything was as usual - this is the 10th time I’ve been flying on this watch.

Dmitry:
- The plane began to shake violently. But there was no panic. Around me people were talking in low voices. We talked about football, about the shift. A neighbor said he felt sick when he landed. But there were no words about the plane crashing.

13.44 - 13.55
Sergey:
- We were flying low. Very. We saw that there was no runway under the wing - only snow. A man behind me asked: “Where are we going to sit? In the field?

13.56
Sergey:
- The plane fell on its left side somehow too much. And then there was a sound outside the window - an iron sound, as if something was being torn off. People started looking at each other.

Dmitry Dorokhov escaped with a slight fright: “The leg will heal! The main thing is that he’s alive.”

Dmitry:
“We were waiting for the pilots to announce that everything is fine.” But there was silence in the cabin. And then the plane went down steeply. Someone shouted: “That’s it, f...! We're falling!"

Alexey:
“I was shocked that only one screamed in the cabin.” The rest silently squeezed into their chairs or began to hide their heads between their knees.

Sergey:
- They didn’t say anything over the speakerphone. Only some strange sound, as if the pilots turned on the microphone, but then turned it off. The flight attendant was also silent - she did not try to calm the people down.

13.57
Sergey:
- I saw through the window how the plane touched the ground with its wing. I couldn’t close my eyes, I just stared. After this, the pilots clearly tried to level the plane, and we jumped up a little. And crashed into the snow!

Alexey:
- They fell silently. Very quickly. Everyone sat in stunned silence. Now many newspapers are saying that the pilots were blinded by a flash of sunlight reflected from the icy strip. This is nonsense! There were no outbreaks. Just a blow.
I didn't lose consciousness. It was only dark in my eyes for about two seconds. Well, you know, like after being hit in the jaw. For about five seconds there was complete silence in the cabin. And then everyone moved at once and groaned.

13.58 - 14.00
Alexey Abramov saved four people from a burning plane. His godmother says: “He is a real hero!”

Sergey:
- The plane lay on its side, and there was a hole in the wall. In the salon, someone kept wailing: “It hurts! Hurt!" I scrambled out and crawled along the aisle.

Dmitry:
“The worst thing was that all the people were sick with the plague—they couldn’t come to their senses. They just didn't understand what happened. I shake my neighbor: “Are you alive?” And he hums. And then the gas tank caught fire. There was no explosion. The flames gradually crawled through the cabin.

Sergey:
- People sitting closer to the nose began to light up and scream. Clothes caught fire instantly. And these “living torches” jumped up and ran to the rear. On us.
Someone shouted: “Take the things, put them out!” We started grabbing sheepskin coats and jackets from the luggage racks and throwing them on people. They fiddled around for about three minutes and put it out. But I was shocked: even when people were burning, they did not panic. They screamed in pain, not in fear...

14.01 - 14.08
Sergey:
“Then someone commanded: “We’re climbing out!” Now everything here is going to fucking explode...” Me and someone else got out through a hole in the fuselage.

Dmitry:
- The flight attendant saved us all. She kicked out the emergency hatch and led people out through it.

Alexey:
- I was one of the first near the hatch. He helped four people get out, it was clear that they couldn’t do it themselves - their arms and legs were broken. I shout at them: “Crawl!” - and I pull. They pulled me out. Then he jumped out himself.

14.09
Sergey:
- There were some warehouses near the plane. And people from there immediately ran to the plane. And everyone who got out of the salon was dragged away. And they shouted all the time: “Come on! Let's!"

Dmitry:
- The Ural was immediately brought up. They loaded those who could not get up on their own and took them to the village. And we sat down in the snow and looked around like newborn babies.

Alexey:
- Nobody remembered about things then - jackets, bags, mobile phones. I didn’t even feel cold, although I was only wearing a sweater. And only in the hospital, when the first shock passed, I saw that many had tears rolling down their faces...

And here’s how it happens on earth (from reports on the TU-154 crash Anapa - St. Petersburg):

Eyewitness testimony

Residents of the Donetsk region who saw the Tu-154 fall tell stories
The Pulkovo Airlines plane took off from Anapa yesterday afternoon.
There were almost fifty children on board among the 160 passengers, because Anapa is a popular children's resort.
At approximately 15.30 Moscow time, the ship's commander transmitted an SOS signal to the ground. And literally two minutes after that, the plane disappeared from the radar.
We reached residents of the village of Novgorodskoye, not far from the place where the plane crashed.
“It circled around the ground for a long time, and just before landing it caught fire,” Galina STEPANOVA, a resident of the village of Novgorodskoye, Donetsk region, near which this tragedy happened, told us. - Behind our village there are fields of the Stepnoy state farm. It was on them that the plane crashed. It turned over several times in the air, stuck its nose into the ground and exploded. Our local residents, until the police arrived and cordoned off everything, went to watch. They say everything there was charred. Well, it was so hot for a month and a half, everyone was waiting for rain. We waited. There was such a downpour and a thunderstorm - it was breathtaking. Most likely, the disaster happened because of the thunderstorm.
“Just before the crash, a strong thunderstorm began,” says eyewitness Gennady KURSOV from the village of Stepnoye, near which the plane crashed. - The sky was overcast. Suddenly there was the sound of a low-flying airliner. But until the last moment he was not visible! We and the residents of other surrounding villages noticed it only when there were 150 meters left to the ground. I thought that it would collapse right on us. It was spinning around its axis like a helicopter...

At the airport

Information about flight 612 disappeared from the display as soon as contact with the plane was lost
The flight from Anapa was supposed to land at Pulkovo at 17.45. But at about 16.00 the line “Anapa - St. Petersburg” suddenly went out on the scoreboard. Few people paid attention to this - the greeters had not yet arrived at the airport.
And this was the very moment when the dispatchers and the crew lost contact forever...
When it became clear that the plane had died, the calm voice of the announcer sounded at Pulkovo:
- Those meeting flight 612 from Anapa are invited to the cinema premises...
- Why a cinema hall? - Those who greeted me became worried and, not yet understanding anything, but already suspecting the worst, rushed there. And there are lists of passengers who have registered for this flight, posted on the glass doors of the cinema. People stood silently in front of these sheets of paper for several minutes. They didn't believe it.
And only when almost all the bars of the Pulkovo airport started playing televisions with terrifying news at once, the first heartbreaking scream was heard in the corridors of the airport.

From the words of a passenger flying on the same days:

we flew from Anapa on August 13th, I was there with my family...
and before leaving I wrote a will for the apartment...
and for a car - so that it would be easier for my friends who are loan guarantors to pay for me in case something irreparable happens...
how they laughed at me and how they didn’t call my action
laughed - until yesterday, when dozens of families went into eternity
now almost everyone has called back and my action no longer seems so “wild” to them
it hurts me to think about it
that these people also sat on the same benches in the storage tank of the Anapa port
sat and watched the runway, planes, takeoffs and landings...
and now they are no longer there, and the world lives on as before, but without them...
how painful it is to realize that death does not change the world as a whole, but only breaks the destinies of individual people.
I already wrote this somewhere here on the threads, but these thoughts don’t go away, they go around in circles all the time and don’t give me peace.
and the mother has been crying for the 2nd day - she says that she has a feeling that WE have “slipped through”
past death, although we are separated from the catastrophe by 9 days...
I will repeat again and again:
May the passengers rest in peace
eternal clear sky crew
let the lost children become angels.

06.09.2019 , 19:10 13160

This happens extremely rarely, but even in serious plane crashes people survive. Sometimes with severe physical and mental consequences, sometimes on the contrary - with the desire to live and even continue to work on board the aircraft. How these people were able to escape, what they did after they woke up, and what trials befell them - read in our article.

Through the jungle with a bag of candy

For 10 days, the girl searched for help and walked to people through the jungle. Not far from the plane crash site, a survivor found a bag of candy that helped her get through those difficult days on the road. There were deep cut wounds on her body, in addition, the girl had a broken collarbone. Juliana also lost her glasses and had trouble seeing, so she was afraid of bumping into snakes. At some point, larvae began to appear in the girl’s wounds, which she had to pull out on her own through severe pain.

On the tenth day, Koepke found a boat moored on the river. Nearby she saw a hut built to shelter a boat engine, in which she discovered gasoline. Juliana treated the wounds with it and pulled out about 30 larvae from them. Being very weak, she fell asleep on the ground near the engine. As a result, the victim was found by residents of a nearby village.

The girl's mother was an ornithologist, and her father was a biologist. Juliana survived thanks to the knowledge she received from her dad. “Before the crash, I spent a year and a half with my parents at a research station just 30 miles from the crash site. “I learned a lot about life in the rainforest,” the heroine said afterward.

Juliana became a zoologist, as she dreamed of. She admitted that since the disaster she has been monitoring aircraft accidents and looking for an explanation for why they happen. Koepke's story was filmed and released under the title "Miracles Still Happen."

Flight attendant who survived the terrorist attack

The 22-year-old flight attendant was the only survivor of the explosion on the plane; in total there were 28 people on board. Note that the girl was not supposed to fly on this flight; she was mistakenly assigned to it instead of another flight attendant with a similar name. On the day of the incident, Vesna had not yet completed her studies and was an intern.

“The person who was responsible for the flight lists made a mistake. The other flight attendant and I were named Vesna. And he put “Vesna Vulovich” instead of “Vesna Nikolic”, an accidental mistake. After the plane crash, flight attendant Nikolic quit: she never flew again in her life,” said the survivor.

Village residents found the girl at the scene of the disaster and provided first aid. The first thing Vulovich asked for after regaining consciousness was to light a cigarette. The flight attendant fell from a height of more than 10,000 meters, but survived, according to her, due to low pressure and loss of consciousness at the time of the incident.

Vulovich did not remember the details of the plane crash, so she wanted to continue working as a flight attendant after recovery, but she was given an office job. In 1985, the flight attendant's name was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the holder of the world altitude record for surviving a free fall without a parachute.

Saved by an airplane seat

After the fuselage in front of her seat broke, Savitskaya was thrown into the aisle. She reached the nearest chair, sat down in it and pressed herself. Later, the girl shared that at the time of the incident she remembered a scene from the film “Miracles Still Happen,” where the heroine did a similar thing.

The tail of the plane landed on a birch forest, which softened the blow. Two days after the disaster, the student was found by rescuers. The girl injured her spine, suffered a concussion and fractures. Larisa also lost almost all her teeth, but she was in a state of shock and did not feel pain.

In total, there were 32 people on board the plane, all of whom died except Savitskaya. The survivor later learned that after the plane crash, graves were already prepared for her and her husband. “I didn’t fall into religion, or drunkenness, or depression. I love life. But sometimes I half-jokingly, half-seriously say: “I am God’s favorite girl,” Savitskaya said afterward.

The girl was included in the Russian Guinness Book of Records as having survived a fall from a maximum height (5200 meters) and as having received a minimum amount of compensation - 75 rubles.

“I think about what happened every day”

The mother covered Cecilia with herself at the time of the accident, but the girl herself does not remember anything about the incident. The survivor spent 7 weeks in the hospital, after which her uncle and aunt took her in. For a long time, Sichan, who lost her parents and brother, hid from the press and decided to talk about what happened only in 2013. The girl shared that she constantly blamed herself for the fact that she survived and not someone else.

“I think about what happened every day. It's hard not to think about it when I look in the mirror. I have scars on my arms and legs, on my forehead,” Sichan said.

The girl got a tattoo of an airplane on her left arm in memory of the disaster. Years later, Sichan found a firefighter who found her on the plane and handed her over to the doctors. In 2012, she invited him to her wedding. The girl also tries to keep in touch with the families of the victims.

“I see this number everywhere”

“I see this number (232) everywhere. I wake up in the middle of the night and see this number, during the day I look at my phone at 2:32. I'm about to text my mom and it's 2:32,” White said.

Experts told White she was one of about 8 people in the plane's back seat who survived the crash. To this day, the woman maintains contact with other survivors and families of the victims. And she still continues to work as a flight attendant.

“Many people can’t believe I’m back at work, they say they would quit if they were me. But I was so young at the time, I was 25, and I loved my job. I decided, “If I let this get the better of me, I’ll let a lot of other things get the better of me.” So I dared and came back. And I'm glad I did it. I feel like I have a purpose and I’m so grateful to be alive,” White shared.

A whole day in the ocean with sharks

A 13-year-old girl grabbed onto a piece of the fuselage and spent about 9-10 hours in the Mozambique Channel, which is infested with sharks. After that, one of the fishermen rescued her and took her to a local hospital. On July 2, the girl was taken to Paris, and on the 27th she was discharged from the medical facility.

Experts believe that Baya survived because she was thrown out of the plane through a crack that formed. According to the girl's father, Baya is quite timid, and he would never have thought that she could save herself in such an emergency situation.

“Dad, I saw the plane go under water. It was dark and I couldn't see anything. Besides, I'm not a good swimmer, so I grabbed onto something and held on. I don’t even know what it was,” the girl told her father after the disaster.

In January 2010, Bakari published her autobiography, Survivor. In May of the same year, information appeared that Steven Spielberg had offered her to purchase the rights to film the book, but she refused.

Salvation is like a second birth

Initially, Kamil mixed up the queues at the check-in counter; for some time he stood to check-in for a flight to Moscow. Later the man realized that he was mistaken and went in the other direction. When his turn came, Kamil got a place at the rear of the ship.

The man woke up on the ground; he does not remember the details of the disaster. According to him, he could only move one arm. Kamil picked her up and called for help from the rescuers who were already working on the spot. The victim was taken to the hospital, where he woke up only 6 days later.

According to the man, he was not afraid of heights and was going to jump with a parachute immediately after recovery. He considers April 2 his second birthday. “I want this to not happen in the future. But I don’t have the feeling that I want to take revenge on someone, to make him sit in prison and suffer. I just want people to be more responsible,” Bazhenov shared.

The baby who flew to her grandmother

Jasmine was taken to the hospital in serious condition, but she survived the operation well and a year after the accident she was already dancing. “Jasmina feels quite well, she is a restless girl - she doesn’t like to sleep during the day, runs around all the time, dances - turns on the music channel on the TV and she doesn’t even need cartoons. True, if you get too tired, you start to limp, but with time, they say, it should go away,” Jasmina’s grandmother said a year after the plane crash.

The Fearlessness of a Flight Attendant

26-year-old flight attendant Miranda Jenny Tate spoke about what was happening inside the plane at the time of the accident. She felt the ship shake and its tail hit the ground.

“I heard us cutting down trees with our tails, passing through their crowns. Then I heard the screams of passengers,” Tate said.

The impact tore her seat out of the wall, throwing the girl into the galley (food preparation room). She got to her feet and was able to get out of the plane, and then began to help the others. “People were screaming. There were a lot of badly injured people there." Three more men helped her get the victims out of the plane.

Tate spent the next 6 weeks after the accident on crutches and underwent countless physical therapy sessions. “As soon as I got to the hospital, I screamed. I was so grateful to be alive."

The CEO of West Wind Aviation called the flight attendant's efforts "heroic."

“She had a number of injuries that made it difficult for her to perform, but she continued to perform her duties like a true professional,” Mike Rodniuk said.

Tate is now back at university to study social work and plans to continue working as a flight attendant.

Despite these scary stories, statistics show that an airplane is enough safe look transport. By the way, throughout its existence civil aviation, which is almost 100 years old, has killed fewer people than die in a month in road accidents around the world. So you shouldn't be afraid to fly at all. If you're still stressed, we've told you how to increase your chances of surviving a plane crash.

1. Survival clothing.
Your chances of survival will increase if you have the “right” clothes and shoes in the event of a plane crash. “Imagine having to escape from a burning airplane,” says Cynthia Corbett, an FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) specialist. “How comfortable would that be in flip-flops or high-heeled shoes?”
In addition to shoes, a smart solution is to wear clothes made of thick fabric with long legs and sleeves. This will help protect your skin from burns and sharp debris. According to the NTSB report, 68% of people who die in a plane crash die after the accident, from injuries received in a fire.

2. The safest places.
An analysis carried out in 2007 by the magazine Popular Mechanics showed that the largest percentage of survivors were in the tail section of the plane (cases of crashes were considered starting from 1971). These are summary statistics, of course, in a number of cases there were exceptions.
Regardless of where you choose a seat on the plane, try to choose one that is closest to the emergency exit. Professor Ed Galea, a fire safety engineer at the University of Greenwich in England, found that most crash survivors were within 5 rows of an emergency exit. He also points out that seats near the aisle are safer than those near the window, since they allow you to unhindered access to the aisle.

3. Takeoff and landing.
Safety experts have found that the most dangerous moments in flight in terms of a crash are 3 minutes from the moment of takeoff and 9 minutes before the moment the airliner lands. It is at these moments that you should remain in comfortable shoes and long sleeves, and also pay attention to emergency exits.
In addition, experts recommend placing hand luggage under the front seat. In the event of a disaster, this can prevent your legs and feet from being caught under the front seat. A broken leg in a collision is the most common injury.
If a collision is unavoidable, it is important to assume a “survival position” (see instructions in the front chair).
Be sure to remove sharp and hard objects such as pencils, pens, and keys from your pockets.

4. 90 second rule.
The first 90 seconds after a disaster are the most important! If you can remain calm and try to get out of the plane, your chances of survival will be quite high.
Some passengers become so panicked that they cannot even unfasten their seat belt. NTSB reports show that many crash victims remain in their seats with their seat belts fastened.
“It is very important to know what to do without waiting for instructions,” says Corbett. “Some people sit and wait to be told what to do, but no one says anything and they continue to sit right in the middle of a disaster.”
One of the reasons so many people were saved in the recent crash is that they were able to quickly escape the plane.
Finding and collecting your luggage can also be a fatal mistake. Don't hesitate for a second.

5. No more dangerous than an escalator.
According to NTSB statistics, only one in 1.2 million flights ends in disaster. Continuous improvements in safety technology, fire-fighting equipment and the choice of non-flammable materials make flying by plane now safer than traveling by car.
The chance of dying in a plane crash is approximately 1 in 11 million, while the chance of dying in a traffic accident is 1 in 5 thousand.
Thus, flying is one of the safest ways to travel today. However, you shouldn’t take them lightly, you just shouldn’t be afraid and you should always have a plan of action.

July 7 passenger plane airlines Air Canada, flying from Toronto, mistakenly headed not onto the runway, but onto the taxiway, where four other airliners were at that moment. The controllers managed to stop the pilot in time, give the command to go around, after which the plane landed safely on the correct runway.

According to the head of Aero Consulting Experts and former pilot Ross Eimer's United Airlines, the incident threatened to become the worst disaster in aviation history: “Imagine a huge Airbus crashing into four passenger liners with full tanks."

Let's remember the most famous and unusual cases of survival in plane crashes.
Boeing 777 crash in San Francisco

On July 6, 2013, a Boeing 777 crashed in San Francisco. The Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-28EER was flying OZ-214 on the Seoul-San Francisco route, but when landing at San Francisco airport, it crashed into an embankment in front of the runway and collapsed.

The NTSB commission blamed the cause of the crash on the erroneous actions of the crew: the plane was descending too quickly. The pilots noticed that the rate of descent and airspeed were not adequate when the aircraft was 60 meters from the ground, but did not take action for a missed approach. More precisely, 1.5 seconds before the collision the crew decided to go around, but there was no longer an opportunity for this.


The impact tore off the plane's tail and left engine; the fuselage slid along the runway for about 600 meters and described an almost complete circle - it was turned 330 degrees.


Of the 307 people on board (291 passengers and 16 crew members), 3 schoolgirls died (two at the scene of the disaster, one died in the hospital), 187 people were injured. “Only three people” - it’s hard to believe when looking at the photographs of the wrecked liner.


This plane crash showed that serious damage to an aircraft does not mean large casualties. There is another interesting circumstance: contrary to the popular theory that the safest seats are in the back of the plane, all three crash victims were sitting there.

The cabin of flight 214 after the disaster:


Miracle in Toronto 2005

It was a high-profile case when all the people survived a completely destroyed liner.

August 2, 2005 around international airport An Air France A340 aircraft crashed in Toronto while operating flight AFR358 on the Paris-Toronto route. There were 12 crew members and 297 passengers on board.


The approach was carried out in difficult weather conditions with large thunderstorms over the airport in heavy rain and lightning flashes on the runway. The landing was carried out in manual mode with the autopilot and autothrottle disabled.


Flying over the end runway significantly higher than established, the airliner landed further than a third of the beginning of the runway length. The pilots applied reverse, but were unable to stop within the runway, as a result of which the plane left the runway and rolled into a ravine. A fire broke out, which in a few minutes engulfed the airliner and destroyed it, but all 309 people on board were evacuated in time.

The evacuation of 309 people took less than 2 minutes, which many, including Canadian Transport Minister Jean Lapierre, later called a “miracle.”


Survive falling from 5 km height

Young student Larisa Savitskaya and her husband Vladimir were returning from their honeymoon. On August 24, 1981, the An-24 plane on which the Savitsky spouses were flying collided with a Tu-16 military bomber at an altitude of 5220 m. After the collision, the crews of both aircraft were killed. As a result of the collision, the An-24 lost wings with fuel tanks and the top of the fuselage. The remaining part broke several times during the fall.

Passenger aircraft An-24:


At the time of the disaster, Larisa Savitskaya was sleeping in her seat at the rear of the plane. I woke up from a strong blow and a sudden burn (the temperature instantly dropped from 25 °C to? 30 °C). After another break in the fuselage, which passed right in front of her seat, Larisa was thrown into the aisle, waking up, she reached the nearest seat, climbed in and pressed herself into it, without having buckled herself in. Larisa herself later claimed that at that moment she remembered an episode from the film “Miracles Still Happen,” where the heroine squeezed into a chair during a plane crash and survived.

Bomber Tu-16K:


Part of the plane's body landed on a birch grove, which softened the blow. According to subsequent studies, the entire fall of the plane fragment measuring 3 meters wide by 4 meters long, where Savitskaya ended up, took 8 minutes. Savitskaya was unconscious for several hours. Waking up on the ground, Larisa saw in front of her a chair with the body of her dead husband. She received a number of serious injuries, but could move independently.

Two days later, she was discovered by rescuers, who were very surprised when, after two days of coming across only the bodies of the dead, they met a living person. She later learned that a grave had already been dug for both her and her husband. She was the only survivor of 38 people on board. The causes of the aircraft collision were unsatisfactory organization and management of flights in the area of ​​the Zavitinsk airfield.

Larisa Savitskaya was twice included in the Russian edition of the Guinness Book of Records:

like a person who survived a fall from a maximum height,
as a person who received the minimum amount of compensation for physical damage - 75 rubles. According to Gosstrakh standards in the USSR, 300 rubles were required. compensation for damages for the dead and 75 rubles. for survivors of plane crashes.
Larisa Savitskaya with her son Georgy.


Survive falling from a height of 10 km without a parachute

The DC-9 crash over Hermsdorf was an aircraft accident that occurred on January 26, 1972. The McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 airliner of Yugoslav Airlines was operating flight JAT367 on the route Stockholm - Copenhagen - Zagreb - Belgrade, but 46 minutes after departure from Copenhagen the liner exploded in the air. According to some reports, the bomb in luggage compartment The liner was abandoned by a Croatian group of extremists.

JAT DC-9-32, identical to the one blown up:


The explosion of the airliner occurred over German city Hermsdorf, and the wreckage of the plane fell near the city of Ceska Kamenice (Czechoslovakia). Of the 28 people on board (23 passengers and 5 crew members), only one survived - 22-year-old flight attendant Vesna Vulovich, who fell without a parachute from a height of 10,160 meters. She is the holder of the world altitude record for surviving a free fall without a parachute, according to the Guinness Book of Records.

Vesna was in a coma and received many injuries: fractures of the base of the skull, three vertebrae, both legs and the pelvis. The treatment took 16 months, of which for 10 months the girl’s lower body was paralyzed (from the waist to the legs).


Miracle on the Hudson: Emergency Landing A320 aircraft

This aircraft accident occurred on January 15, 2009. The US Airways Airbus A320-214 was operating flight AWE 1549 on the route New York-Charlotte-Seattle, and there were 150 passengers and 5 crew members on board. 1.5 minutes after takeoff, the plane collided with a flock of birds and both engines failed. Commander Chesley Sullenberger, a former US Air Force pilot, decided that the only option to save the 155 people on board was to land on the Hudson River. The splashdown turned out to be successful.


The crew landed the plane safely on the waters of the Hudson River in New York. All 155 people on board survived, 83 people were injured - 5 seriously (one flight attendant was the most injured) and 78 minor.

In the media, the incident is known as the “Miracle on the Hudson.” In total, 11 cases of controlled forced landings of passenger airliners on water are known; this case is the fourth without casualties.

By the way, yesterday, July 17, 2017 plane " Ural Airlines"(flight U6-2932 Simferopol - Yekaterinburg) collided with a flock of birds, as a result of which the nose cone was damaged. It would seem like such a colossus and some birds, but... the plane ended up being repaired for 12 hours.

Here's what a bird strike looks like from the pilot's seat and from outside:


Tu-124 landing on the Neva

This splashdown event occurred in Soviet aviation in the skies over Leningrad on August 21, 1963. As a result of a combination of circumstances, passenger plane The engines of the Tu-124 failed, and the plane began to glide from a height of half a kilometer above the city center. The crew had no choice but to try to splash down on the surface of the Neva. All 52 people on board survived.

Initially, the commission that investigated the circumstances of the accident placed responsibility for the emergency on the crew. But later it was decided not to punish the pilots.


Il-12 splashdown in Kazan

And 10 years earlier, on April 30, 1953, an Il-12 P aircraft from Aeroflot operated flight 35 on the route Moscow - Kazan - Novosibirsk. There were 18 passengers and 5 crew members on board. At 21:37, at the moment when the airliner, preparing to land in Kazan, was flying over the Volga, a very strong impact occurred. The crew members recalled that their vision darkened. Both engines lost power and flames appeared from the exhaust pipes.

Aeroflot IL-12:


The ship's commander decided to make an emergency splashdown. The IL-12 splashed down in the area of ​​the Kazan river port, after which the car began to rapidly fill up river water. the evacuation could not be carried out in time. The crew told passengers that the plane splashed down in shallow water, causing many to worry about taking personal belongings. In fact, the depth of the river in this place reached about 20 meters. As a result, people who had put on outerwear ended up in the water and began to drown. Of the 22 people, one passenger drowned. The investigation commission found that the cause of the emergency was a collision between the plane and a flock of ducks.

Miracle in the Andes

On October 13, 1972, an FH-227 plane crash occurred, which was called the “Miracle in the Andes.” A Fairchild FH-227D airliner of the Uruguayan Air Force performed charter flight FAU 571 on the route Montevideo-Mendoza-Santiago, and on board were 5 crew members and 40 passengers (members of the Old Cristians rugby team, their relatives and sponsors). While approaching Santiago, the airliner was caught in a cyclone, crashed into a rock and crashed at the foot of the mountain.

Aircraft Fairchild FH-227D board T-571:


The survivors had minimal food supplies and no heat sources necessary to survive in the harsh cold climate at an altitude of 3,600 meters. Desperate from hunger and a radio message that “all efforts to find the missing plane are being stopped,” people began to eat the frozen bodies of their dead comrades. Rescuers learned about the survivors only after 72 days...


12 passengers died when they fell and collided with a rock, another 5 died later from wounds and cold. Then, of the remaining 28 survivors, 8 more died in an avalanche that covered their “home” from the fuselage of the plane, and later three more died from their wounds.

Boeing 737 accident over Kahului

This accident occurred on April 28, 1988. The Boeing 737-297 airliner of Aloha Airlines was performing domestic flight AQ 243 on the Hilo-Honolulu route, and on board there were 6 crew members and 89 passengers. But 23 minutes after takeoff, a significant part of the fuselage structure in the nose suddenly tore off the plane. According to the report, the causes of the accident were metal corrosion, poor epoxy bonding of fuselage parts, and rivet fatigue.


94 out of 95 people survived. Senior flight attendant Clarabelle Lansing died - at the moment a part of the fuselage was torn off, she was in the middle of the plane, and she was thrown out by the air flow. Search teams could not find her body, as well as the detached fragment of the fuselage, about 5.4 meters long.

Flight attendant Vesna Vulović became famous throughout the world in the early seventies. In 1972, an event occurred after which her life completely changed. Vulovich’s name was included in the Guinness Book of Records, she met with political and public figures, met the idol of her youth, Paul McCartney, and other world-famous stars. What happened in the early seventies? What event made an ordinary flight attendant famous?

Plane crash

A terrible accident occurred on January 26, 1972. The McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 airliner was flying from Stockholm to Belgrade. At an altitude of more than ten thousand meters the liner exploded. Its debris fell on the Czechoslovakian city of Ceska Kamenice. All passengers and crew members were killed, with the exception of flight attendant Vesna Vulović.

On this day, all the world's media reported about the explosion of the plane. The cause of the tragedy that occurred over a small Czechoslovakian town was a bomb that was hidden on board an airliner by terrorists from Croatia. The chances of surviving such accidents are negligible. Reports of disasters in the sky usually end with the tragic phrase: “Everyone on board died.” But this time, news appeared in the media that shocked the world: Yugoslav Airlines flight attendant Vesna Vulović managed to survive. However, this case cannot be called absolutely unprecedented in

So, more than forty years ago, a sensation spread around the world - twenty-two-year-old flight attendant Vesna Vulovich remained alive after falling from a height of ten thousand meters. What saved her life? The planting was softened by the snow-covered tree crowns. However, the heroine of this amazing story herself could not tell about her flight. Stewardess Vesna Vulovich, who survived the terrible accident, remembered that terrible day vaguely. She came to her senses only two months later. What is known from the biography of the flight attendant?

Stewardess Vesna Vulovich

She became a flight attendant by accident. Vesna was born in Yugoslavia in 1950. She graduated from high school and entered university. Like many other young people of the sixties, the girl was a fan of the Beatles group, and therefore dreamed of mastering English perfectly. In 1968, she could not imagine that she would ever meet Paul McCartney himself.

Vesna chose the English department for herself and began to study the language in which famous vocalists sang. After the first year of study, our heroine went for an internship in England. When she returned home, something happened that radically changed her whole life.

The girl met her school friend. By that time he had flown on airliners of a large Yugoslav company. A childhood friend advised Vesna to enroll in a flight attendant course. Working on international airlines gave me the opportunity to regularly visit the beautiful, foggy city of London. In addition, the salary of a flight attendant was several times higher than the income of an English teacher.

First flight

Vesna successfully completed her courses. In 1971, the girl took to the skies for the first time. When the tragedy occurred, which became the main event in her life, she was still a university student. She did not have a permanent job.

The last hours before the disaster

On that day, the crew in which Vesna interned arrived in Copenhagen. In the Danish capital, he replaced the pilots of the plane that flew in from Stockholm. Subsequently, Vesna Vulovich - the flight attendant who killed all her colleagues - recalled that the crew members, more experienced people, seemed to have a presentiment of something. They constantly talked about their families, went shopping a lot, and bought souvenirs for relatives.

Later, in the hospital, Serbian flight attendant Vesna Vulović tried to remember all the smallest events of that day. Who planted the bomb? Shortly before takeoff, she noticed one of the loaders. This man differed in both appearance and behavior from his colleagues. Outwardly, he looked like a resident of the Balkan Peninsula. The man’s behavior contrasted sharply with the behavior of the other loaders. He spoke loudly, was nervous, fussed. According to Vulovich, it was he who planted the bomb on the plane. However, this realization came too late.

Bruno Honke

What happened to flight attendant Vesna Vulović in 1972 can safely be called a miracle. She was incredibly lucky twice. The first time was when she did not die in the explosion. In the second - when she managed to survive the fall.

However, the girl was saved not only by the fact that the dilapidated liner fell on snow-covered trees. The fact is that the first at the scene of the disaster was local resident Bruno Honke. This man worked in a German field hospital during the Second World War. He provided the girl with first aid. It is worth saying that Honka miraculously managed to discover a barely breathing young flight attendant among many dead bodies. He probably saved her life.

Treatment

The story of Vesna Vulović, a flight attendant from Yugoslavia who survived an accident that claimed 27 lives, instantly spread throughout the world. She was taken to the hospital. A long period of rehabilitation began. For about two months, Spring did not come to her senses. For a long time, doctors did not believe that the girl would survive after such a terrible accident. But she still came to her senses. It is noteworthy that when I opened my eyes, the first thing I did was ask for a cigarette.

As the days passed, the young body coped with the injuries received from the fall more and more confidently. However, Vesna never remembered the last hours spent on board the plane. She could not say what she was doing at the time of the explosion. Most likely, at those minutes the girl was in the passenger compartment.

For ten months, Vesna was paralyzed. Doctors feared she would never be able to walk. However, another miracle happened - the only survivor of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 plane crash got back to her feet.

After the disaster

Flight attendant Vesna Vulović, whose photo was shown on television almost every day in February 1972, was sent by plane to Belgrade two months after the accident. Doctors feared that the flight would negatively affect her mental state. A fall from such a height cannot pass without leaving a trace. However, everything turned out well. Moreover, Vesna had no fear of flying. She was not afraid of airplanes even later.

She spent some more time in a Belgrade hospital. A policeman was on duty at the entrance to Vulovich’s ward day and night. She did not remember anything about the events of the last hours before the accident. However, she remained the only witness to the crime, which, by the way, was never solved. The authorities feared that terrorists would try to kill the surviving crew member.

The miraculous rescue of the flight attendant overshadowed the other details of the accident. Vesna was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the person who made the highest jump without a parachute. In the mid-eighties, Spring arrived in London. Paul McCartney was present at the ceremony for presenting the certificate of entry into the Guinness Book of Records. Spring finally met the idol of her youth.

In the early autumn of 1972, Vulovich was discharged from the hospital. Surprisingly, she not only did not develop a fear of flying, but did not even lose the desire to work as a flight attendant. Vesna tried to get a job at the airline again. She was not hired as a flight attendant, but was offered a position in the office. Vesna Vulovich worked for the airline for many years: she was involved in the preparation of cargo contracts. Left my place of work former flight attendant eighteen years later due to disagreement with the policies of the Yugoslav leader S. Milosevic.

A flight attendant who survived a 1972 plane crash has become a national heroine. She was received by Marshal Tito himself, which was considered a great honor for a citizen of Yugoslavia at that time. Songs were dedicated to Spring, and she was invited to various television shows. Girls were named after her. To survive such a catastrophe, a lucky break is not enough. You need strength, an extraordinary desire to live. Vulovich became a symbol of good luck and optimism.

The former flight attendant used her fame for social and political purposes. She took an active part in protests against Milosevic’s rule and campaigned for one of the parties in the elections.

Death

Vesna Vulovich lived to be 66 years old. On December 23, 2016, she was found dead in her own apartment. Relatives and friends could not reach her for a long time. The police were called and they opened the door. The cause of death of the famous flight attendant is unknown. Friends claim that the woman’s health has recently deteriorated sharply.

The record of a flight attendant from Yugoslavia has not yet been broken. Not a single person managed to fall from such a height and survive. However, history knows several equally interesting cases.

In 1942, a Soviet military plane was shot down, the pilot of which fell without a parachute. His life was saved by snow cover.

Another amazing event happened many years after the Second World War ended. world war. In December 1971, a passenger plane crashed near Peru. Half an hour after departure, the airliner ran into a thunderstorm. The plane caught fire and broke into pieces. The 17-year-old passenger survived. When she woke up, she found herself sitting in a chair hanging from a tree.

In August 1981, a collision occurred between An-24 and Tu-16 aircraft. Student Larisa Savitskaya and her husband were present on board the passenger airliner. There were several reasons for the disaster, including poor coordination between civilian and military dispatchers. Everyone died except Larisa.

She fell from a height of five kilometers. She received many injuries, but, according to Soviet laws, she was not entitled to disability. The woman spent her entire life doing odd jobs and sometimes went hungry. She also became a record holder in some way. Unlike Vulovich, Savitskaya did not become famous in her homeland. She received compensation in the amount of 75 rubles from the state, after which the story with amazing fall was forgotten.