Where is seat 11A on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner? What is the safest seat on a plane - after British man survives Air India plane crash
A British national miraculously survived the Air India disaster in which a Boeing 787 crashed killing at least 241 people on board.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, suffered relatively minor injuries and jumped out of an emergency exit next to his seat after Thursday’s crash in the western city of Ahmedabad. His brother Ajay, who was also on the plane, is missing and presumed dead.
Air India confirmed 241 people on board had died, saying it offered its deepest condolences to their families. "We are still verifying the number of dead, including those killed in the building where the plane crashed," Vidhi Chaudhary, a top state police officer said.
Prof Edwin Galea, director of the Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) at the University of Greenwich, published a study in 2006 which found in survivable crashes people within five rows of an exit row were more likely to survive. Anyone sitting further than this from an emergency door was more likely to die than to live, should they survive the initial injuries of impact.
He said that there is not one seat on a plane in which to sit to ensure maximum safety. It is often said the rear of a plane is safer, for example, but the benefits of any one seat or another are so dependent on the nature of a crash, that this cannot hold as a rule of thumb.
According to the Boeing 787's seating configuration used by Air India, Seat 11A is a Standard Economy Exit Row seat-positioned right next to an exit. Prof Galea told The Telegraph: “If you believe what they’ve said in the media, the survivor’s seat is 11A and on the 787-8, that’s right by the number two exit. So he’s got the seat as close as you could possibly be to an emergency exit. You can’t be any closer.”
He added that the rear-facing seat of the cabin crew placed almost directly in front of Mr Ramesh is actually the safest seat in a plane as it is more robust and has a full harness to limit excessive movement. He said that an advantage of seat 11A is that it falls within the sturdy “wing box” of a plane, which is its strongest area.
Prof John McDermid, Lloyd’s Register chairman of safety at University of York, also told The Telegraph said the choice of seat could have been vital as it is an over-wing seat which offers greater structural strength. But the Brit had a lot of luck - and it is also very dependent on the nature of the crash, so not one seat is more safe than another.