What are the odds of being a sole survivor of a plane crash?

Question

I was in a discussion in a 1L class in which we talked about a guy who, on his way to board an airline, slipped in the airport (airline's negligence), fell, hit his head and died. But the plane he was on loses an engine (i.e. O'Hare, 1983) and crashes, everybody killed. I said "well, does it matter that there HAVE been airline crashes in which there was a single survivor, and he could've been that survivor?" However, I couldn't find a statistic which listed the odds of being a sole survivor. but i DID find 2 specific incidents, One in January 2006 and one in August 2006. Does anybody know this?

Please, limit your response to the question at hand, not my argument presented.

-KOhVu.

Answer 1

United 747 on approach to Japan, Mechanical repairers put a single row of rivets on a patch requiring two rows. Northwest MD 80 series on take off from Detroit. A young girl survived. Pilot shut off circuit breakers for the warning lights and alarms after shutting down one engine to save gas and refueling time en route to Phoenix. Pilots were fuming over the Northwest/ Republic merger and dissimilar union contracts.
to answer your question ...some zeroes with a one at the end.

Answer 2

I'd be surprised if that was maintained as a meaningful statistic. There have been incidents, IIRC there was a 747 crashed in Japan and the only survivor was a flight atendant they picked out of a tree. There was an incident in the 60s when the tail came off an aircraft and the only survivor was a flight attendant who rode that part down. But in the grand scheme of things there aren't enough single survivors to make valid statistics. There's also the issue of the size of the aircraft, the few people you start with the more likely you are to be have a sole survivor, so single seat fighters often have sole survivors, any survivor is a sole survivor in that case.

Answer 3

It's the angle of the arrival that will determine your survival.

I'm not sure if statistics are available that would put the odds out of the negligible category. At least I haven't heard of any.

Answer 4

It's highly unlikley that the person sitting next to you will die if you survive. You are subjected to the same deceleration rates, same impact etc.

Answer 5

what r the chances of being in a plane crash in the first place??

Answer 6

well I am not sure if they actually keep such statistics. but it has happened a few times that I can recall and I am sure many more that I don't know about.