FLIGHTS CANCELLED

And hundreds of flights from Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester, Luton and Birmingham have been cancelled.

British Airways has cancelled all domestic flights to all domestic airports.

An internal BA memo obtained by Sky News advises pilots: "The safety of our customers, crew and aircraft is of paramount importance and will not be compromised."

Officials said more airports could close completely as the ash drifts over the UK.

Airports are urging travellers to contact their airlines to check whether their journeys are affected.

Latest travel information - read how each of the airports is affected here.

More than 150 flights have been cancelled at Heathrow and 138 at Gatwick, including the majority of easyJet and Monarch departures.

Eighty flights have been cancelled at Birmingham.

A spokesman from National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said: "The Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre has issued a forecast that the ash cloud from the volcanic eruption in Iceland will track over Europe tonight.

"NATS is working with Eurocontrol and our colleagues in Europe's other air navigation service providers to take the appropriate action to ensure safety in accordance with international aviation policy."

NATS has the authority to close airpsace around airports - which it has so far done in Scotland - and will consider other airports as the day goes on.

Manchester Airport said flights would be cancelled and delayed between 7am and 1pm.

Some easyJet flights due to depart from Stansted Airport have also been cancelled.

Sky's Enda Brady, reporting from Heathrow, said things were only expected to get worse throughout the day.

"I've been told that there won't be any good news coming out of the airport today."

Brady said that arrivals from the USA were particularly badly affected due to the flight path.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable cancelled campaign visits to Dunfermline and Edinburgh due to the Scottish airport closures.

Passengers told Sky about massive disruptions to their plans.

One said: "I'm due to get married in Essex tomorrow and my family were flying in from Belfast. That's not going to happen now."

Another said he had been sent home from Manchester airport and told to ring Monarch for more information but it was impossible to get through.

The volcanic eruption was the second in Iceland in less than a month.

The heat from it is so fierce it melted part of the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, sparking huge floods.

Weather experts also said the ash could take a number of days to disperse.

Dr Matthew Roberts, from the Iceland Meteorological Office, told Sky News he believed that there were unlikely to be any more explosions.

He said that the fine ash particles being blown across Europe should only "pose minimal health hazards" to people in the UK.

The volcanic ash jams machinery on planes and there have been many instances of damage to jet aircraft in the past.

After the Galunggung volcanic event in 1982, a British Airways Boeing 747 flew through an ash cloud that fouled all 4 engines, stopping them.

The plane descended from 36,000 feet (11,000m) to 12,000 feet (3,700m) before the crew could manage to restart the engines.

Sky weather presenter Lucy Verasamy said: "The ash cloud from Iceland represents a risk to aircraft since it can damage engines.

"But in this instance it won't affect the weather - although massive and prolonged eruptions can cause a cooling of the climate."

POLISH PRESIDENT IN PLANE CRASH

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and scores of other people were killed Saturday when the president's plane crashed on landing in the western Russian city of Smolensk, officials said. Skip related content
Related photos / videos Officials in Warsaw confirmed that President Kaczynski was aboard the plane Enlarge photo Officials in Warsaw confirmed that President Kaczynski was aboard the plane Enlarge photo VIDEO: Putin and Tusk remember Poland's Katyn massacre. Enlarge photo The Smolensk regional governor, Sergei Antufiev, said the plane clipped treetops as it approached to land at an airport outside Smolensk and crashed, breaking into several pieces.

Russian television broadcast live footage showing the plane's wreckage scattered in a forest with parts of it still on fire.

Russian news agencies reported there were at least 80 people aboard the plane -- some reports said there were as many as 132 people on board -- and Antufiev said no one had survived.

"It clipped the tops of the trees, crashed down and broke into pieces," the governor of the Smolensk region, Sergei Antufiev, told Russia-24 television news network by telephone from Smolensk.

"There were no survivors."

The television pictures showed the plane broken into many pieces, including engines and a huge chunk of the plane's vertical stabilizer caked in mud, strewn over a large area in forest that was blanketed with fog.

Firefighters were dousing water on portions of the plane that were still ablaze while groups of security personnel in camouflage uniforms and clusters of investigators in civilian clothes inspected the wreckage.

The Russian foreign ministry told Interfax news agency that the plane had crashed in heavy fog.

Officials in Warsaw confirmed that Kaczynski was aboard the plane that crashed and Russian television broadcast video shot earlier Saturday of the president and his wife boarding the plane in Warsaw.

Polish foreign ministry spokesman Piotr Pszkowski said that the army chief of staff and Deputy Foreign Minsiter Andrzej Kremer were also on board the plane.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev immediately appointed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the head of a commission to investigate the crash and sent Russia's emergency situations minister, Sergei Shoigu, to the site.

The aircraft crashed a few hundred metres short of the runway at the Severny airport outside Smolensk, ITAR-TASS news agency reported, quoting rescuers at the site.

The flight data recorders of the plane had not yet been located but experts were on the scene and the search for them was under way, ITAR-TASS said.

Kaczynski, the identical twin brother of former prime minister Jaroslaw, was on his way to attend commemorative ceremonies at the forest of Katyn in western Russia where 22,000 Poles were killed by Soviet troops 70 years ago.

The crash of his plane occurred three days after Putin and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, together attended a memorial for the victims of the massacre at Katyn.

The Putin-Tusk meeting there was seen as a huge symbolic advance in Russia's often thorny relations with Poland.

TOURISM ROCKET FIRST FLIGHT

Virgin Galactic's fledgling space tourism rocket was taken aloft over the California desert on an inaugural test flight attached to the wing of its mothership, the company said. Skip related content
The captive-carry test marked the start of a test programme for SpaceShipTwo that will progress to free flights as a glider and then under rocket power, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic said in a statement.
Throughout the two-hour, 54-minute test, the spaceship remained slung beneath the middle of the wing of its unique twin-fuselage carrier aircraft, the WhiteKnightTwo.
The pair achieved an altitude of 45,000 feet before returning to the Mojave Air and Space Port, which is 70 miles north of Los Angeles, the company said.
The rocket and mothership are the second-generation of the Burt Rutan-designed system that sent the first privately developed, manned rocket into space in June 2004. SpaceShipOne went on that year to make two more suborbital flights, winning the 10 million US dollar Ansari X Prize.
Sir Richard, the billionaire founder of Virgin Group Ltd, is in a deal with the Rutan-founded Scaled Composites LLC of Mojave, California, to develop passenger-carrying spacecraft and launchers.
The new SpaceShipTwo has been dubbed Virgin Spaceship Enterprise and the four-engine carrier jet is called Virgin Mothership Eve, after Sir Richard's mother.
"Seeing the finished spaceship in December was a major day for us but watching VSS Enterprise fly for the first time really brings home what beautiful, groundbreaking vehicles Burt and his team have developed for us," Sir Richard said.
Virgin Galactic said the flight test programme will run until the end of 2011 before commercial operations begin. SpaceShipTwo will be carried to an altitude of about 50,000 feet and then released by the mothership.
Powered by a single rocket motor, the spaceship will be flown by a crew of two and carry six passengers on a Mach 3 thrill ride through the edge of the atmosphere for a brief zero-gravity experience and views of the Earth far below before gliding to a landing. More than 300 people have made deposits on the 200,000 US dollar (£132,000) tickets.

HEATHROW CRASH

Heathrow Crash: Fault 'Not Covered By Rules'


© Sky News 2010
Buzz Up! Print StorySafety requirements did not cover the ice problem which caused a plane to crash-land at Heathrow two years ago, according to an official report into the accident. Skip related content
Related photos / videos
Heathrow Crash: 'Ice Not Covered By Rules'
Play video Heathrow Crash: 'Ice Not Covered By Rules' Play video Unforeseen Ice Problem Caused Heathrow Crash Enlarge photo More photos: Heathrow
The crash of the British Airways 777 on January 17, 2008 came after the plane lost power due to a restricted fuel flow to both engines, a final report from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said.

The AAIB concluded that it was probable that the engine fuel flow restriction was caused by a build-up of ice within the fuel system.

The AAIB said: "Certification requirements, with which the aircraft and engine fuel system had to comply, did not take account of this phenomenon as the risk was unrecognised at that time."

The report added that research in the 1950s had identified the problem of ice formation in fuel systems from dissolved or trapped water, but did not identify the scenario of accumulated ice release and subsequent restriction to fuel flow.

Having lost power the BA plane, carrying 136 passengers from Beijing, came down within the airfield boundary at Heathrow but 330 metres short of the runway.

The jet slid 372 metres on its undercarriage before coming to rest.

The left main landing gear (MLG) collapsed and the right MLG separated from the plane. All the passengers were safely evacuated, with one passenger breaking a leg.

All told, 34 passengers and 12 cabin crew suffered minor injuries, mainly to the back and neck.

The report said that the cabin crew, led by Captain Peter Burkill, had become aware of a possible engine thrust problem just 43 seconds from touchdown.

Losing speed, the crew tried to increase engine thrust but there was no response from the engines. With a touchdown short of the runway inevitable, a Mayday call was put out three seconds before touchdown.

The AAIB made a total of 18 safety recommendations including some which address plane "crashworthiness", the ability of an aircraft to withstand an accident.

A British Airways spokesman said: "We welcome this final report. The crew of BA38 did a fantastic job in extremely difficult circumstances."

BA added that although there were no specific safety recommendations for the airline, it had worked with the relevant authorities and manufacturers "to ensure that the highest safety levels are maintained".

MIGRATING TO DEATH

Japanese authorities have found the body of a man in the landing gear of an airliner that arrived in Tokyo from New York. Skip related content
Related photos / videos
Man's Body Found In Landing Gear Of US Flight
Enlarge photo .The man, who was of dark complexion and dressed only in blue jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, was carrying no passport or personal belongings.

A mechanic found the body in the landing gear bay of the Delta Airlines Boeing 777, after Flight 59 landed at Tokyo's Narita International Airport, a Chiba prefecture police spokesman said.

After the passengers disembarked, the aircraft was towed to a freight area. The maintenance worker found the man inside the door of the landing gear storage compartment.

Airport police said there were no external injuries on the man's body, but there were traces of frostbite believed to have occurred while the plane was airborne.

"Doctors say he probably froze to death and that he suffered a shortage of oxygen at an altitude of more than 30,000 feet," said Narita Airport police spokesman Yoshimi Ichihara.

"We found no passport, no bag and no personal belongings. If he carried any luggage, it must have all dropped out when the airplane opened the landing gear bay above the ocean before it landed."

There is enough space for a person to hide in the main landing gear housing compartment, but the area is not pressurised with the cabin of the aircraft.

Consequently there have been several cases in which stowaways have hidden in the housing compartment, but died due to a shortage of oxygen and the freezing temperatures.

Japanese authorities are seeking help from US police to identify the man.

TOYOTA RECALLS

The Toyota recall is potentially going to cost the company heavily
Toyota is in the process of recalling millions of cars owing to fears of a sticking accelerator pedal.

Cars in the US, Europe and China are all involved in the recall but different models are affected.

The carmaker has apologised for the problems but stresses that only a small proportion of its vehicles are affected. It says only 26 cases have been reported in Europe.

Both diesel and petrol cars are affected.

What is the issue that has raised concerns?

There is a problem with the accelerator pedal that in some cases has become stuck. This is the result of the pedal becoming worn, the company says.

Separately in the US, there have been fears that accelerator pedals have been stuck in the floor mat.

Millions of vehicles have been recalled in the US, 1.8 million cars across Europe are involved in the recall including 180,865 vehicles in the UK, and others are being brought in in China.

Specifically which vehicles are being recalled?

For the floormat issue in the US, Toyota, Lexus and Pontiac vehicles affected are: 2007-2010 Camry, 2005-2010 Avalon, 2004-2009 Prius, 2005-2010 Tacoma, 2007-2010 Tundra, 2007-2010 ES 350, 2006-2010 IS 250 and IS350, 2008-2010 Highlander, 2009-2010 Corolla, 2009-2010 Venza, 2009-2010 Matrix, and the 2009-2010 Pontiac Vibe.

Those recalled for the sticking pedal in the US are 2007-2008 Tundra, 2008-2010 Sequoia, 2005-2010 Avalon, 2007-2010 Camry, 2009-2010 Corolla, 2009-2010 Matrix, 2009-2010 RAV4, 2010 Highlander, and the 2009-2010 Vibe.

In the UK, the affected models are February 2005 - August 2009 AYGO, November 2008 - November 2009 iQ, November 2005 - September 2009 Yaris, October 2006 - 5 January 2010 Auris, October 2006 - December 2009 Corolla, February 2009 - 5 Jan 2010 Verso, November 2008 - December 2009 Avensis.

Are any other brands involved?

Toyota has admitted a software problem in the new Prius's brakes, but says it has now been fixed, and did not affect vehicles in the UK. So far it has not recalled any Prius cars.

Drivers of Peugeots and Citroens have contacted the BBC News website raising concerns. The Peugeot 107, Citroen C1 and the Toyota Aygo are essentially the same car with different styling and fittings and made at a Czech plant.

As a result, Peugeot Citroen, Europe's second-biggest carmaker, will be recalling "fewer than 100,000" cars made with Toyota in Europe.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated move, rival carmaker Honda has announced the recall of 646,000 cars globally to fix a switch defect that could cause a fire.

What do I do if I get a "sticky accelerator" when driving?

Toyota says drivers will not suddenly find that they have a sticking accelerator. At first, it is likely to be heavier to press or shudder and at that point they should contact the company.

However, if the accelerator does stick when driving, the motorist should press firmly on the brake - instead of pumping it, put the car into neutral, and pull over when safe.

What do I do next?

If you are in the US, you should contact your dealer.

For more information, consumers can contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Hotline at 888-327-4236 or the Toyota Experience Center at 1-800-331-4331 or the Lexus Customer Assistance Center at 1-800-255-3987.

Information from Toyota is also posted at the Toyota website or the Lexus website .

In the UK, cars will start being repaired from 10 February. The repairs will be carried out by qualified Toyota technicians, at Toyota-approved service centres and will take 30 minutes.

In the meantime there is a hotline - 0800 1388 744 - and a dedicated website .

The company is also working with the DVLA and will write to car owners whose vehicles could be affected. This will also include owners who have bought the cars second-hand.

A website that would allow owners to check their vehicles registration number is also being developed.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES CRASHED

The pilot of the aircraft which crashed off the coast of Lebanon failed to follow instructions to avoid a severe storm, according to the country's defence minister. Skip related content
Related photos / videos
Enlarge photo .Ninety passengers, including two British passport holders, were on board the Ethiopian Airlines jet, when it came down shortly after leaving the capital Beirut on Monday morning.

Rescuers have found at least 14 bodies but no survivors in a large search operation after the plane plunged flaming into the Mediterranean Sea.

Defence minister Elias Murr said the plane failed to follow instructions from Beirut air traffic controllers, for reasons that were not immediately clear.

"A command tower recording shows the tower told the pilot to turn to avoid the storm, but the plane went in the opposite direction," he said.

"We do not know what happened or whether it was beyond the pilot's control."

Flight 409 lost contact with Beirut airport shortly after takeoff at 02:37am (0037 GMT).

Officials have ruled out foul play. They have also played down hopes of anyone being found alive.

Luggage and debris from the Boeing 737, which had been bound for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, washed up south of Beirut during the day.

Empty seats, gift-wrapped children's toys and the plane's coffee machine were found near the airport.

Afif Krisht, who had dual British-Lebanese nationality, was one of the passengers, according to sources.

The 55-year-old businessman was a father of six who split his time between Lebanon and Plymouth, Devon, where three children from his first marriage to a British woman live, reports said.

Car Skatingp

COMMERCIAL SPACECRAFT by Rev. Babatunde Ajibola

Soon we might all be making constant trips to space and I hope when this become possible, we should see the mysteries of the universe that such trips will reveal as the wonderful works of God's hand. We should not allow our thoghts to be ruled by athiest scepticism as to the existence of God.

The first commercial spaceship unveiled by Sir, Richard Branson of the Virgin Space Ship Enterprise is the second privately manned craft to reach space. It is commendable and the voyage has won the confidence of many would be clients who have paid the sum of $200,000 for ticket or deposit for a seat.

Sir Branson and his family including his 92year old father are to be on the first trip. Other passengers include physicist Stephen Hawkins and the enviromental Scientist James Lovelock.
The take off point is Majave Desert in California where the vessel was developed. For now I will be contented with flying at the 32,000 feet above the sea level on Virgin Atlantic airline.

Christian Books Articles Previews - Knowledge is light

Christian Books Articles Previews - Knowledge is light

STOREFRONT

STOREFRONT

Articles

Articles

PROPHECY

PROPHECY

Articles

Articles

AVIATION WATCH by Babatunde Ajibola

You never can guess what is going on in the cockpit between the pilots while you are airborne at 37000 feet flying above the clouds. Though it is always delightful when the captain introduces himself and on behalf of the crew members welcome you on board and assure you of safety asking you to enjoy your flight. Normally, passengers would accept this assurance by faith and without doubt having the believe that all was going to be well. Yes it has always been well except on few occasions when things suddenly go wrong and the news is all over the place that an air disaster had taken place. Despite this, people still rush to the airport to board the plane for their destination believing it will not happen to them.

Funny enough, many who survived air disasters still fly. I believe it is because we do not have other means that could be faster and quicker. Thank God for answered prayers. When I am flying I simply commit my journey into God's hand and pray for safety in the air across the globe. I know if not for the blood of Jesus, the world would be experiencing much disaster every day.This is the wish of the evil one but thank God fo journey mercies.



Today 23rd of October 2009, It is reported of two pilots who because of heated discussion between them missed their destination by 150 miles causing hyjack fears.



The Northwestern airline pilots were flying with 144 passengers on board from San Diego to Minneapolis at 37000 feet when they lost contact only to realise the fact that they have missed their destination by 150 miles.



Meanwhile, the U.S. military had been alerted and jet fighters on stand-by in case it was an hijack incident. Realising their mistake the pilots turned back after securing permision to do so and eventually landed safely. Though the pilots have been suspended pending the conlusion of investigation into the matter, it is believed that the pilots have not actually told the truth.

What ever the case may be, it should be regarded as a grivious offence in aviation for pilots to occupy themselves with some other schedule apart from flying the plane. Some weeks back a pilot was reported to have left the cockpit and engaged in a fight with one of his passengers.

We should take flying a serious business because of the risk involve. We should be conscious of the fact that there are no parking spaces in the air, no servicing stations. Once something goes wrong, it could spelt disaster if the situation goes out of control. Pilots should realise the fact that their passengers hold them in high esteems trusting in their ability and self-discipline to fly them safely to their destinations. May God continue to grant us journey mercies.

PSYCHOLOGY OF AIR TRAVELLING

If I may ask, how often do you fly and what are your observations in the the passengers and crew members relationship? If you will agree with me, it could be compared to that of the patients,nurse and doctors relationship. When the doctors and the nurses smile and speak words of encouragement to the patient with smile and cheerfulness on their face, the patient tend to become more comfortable and hopeful even in critical situations in which the patient is seriously in pain, a good smile and word of encouragement could make the hospital room homely.
In like manner while a passenger is airborne, the countenance of the Cabin Crew and the tone in which announcement is made could send comfortable signals or embarrassing signals to passengers. At the beginning of a flight at take off, the safety measures when being announced remind all on board of the possibilities of a disaster but we all want to with optimism assume that they are mere formalities and that hopefully everything would go on fine. Such is the way the human mind operate in situations where necesities confine us to abide with conditions that are characterised by both positive and negative possibilities.
Flying is an unavoidable necessities as despite the announcement of an air disaster, people still rush to book for a place on the next available flight.
In as long as people do not wish to get involve in air disasters,the courage to take the risk is often motivated by the fact that there is no alternative.
In the book of Daniel chapter twelve, it is written by prophecy that in the time of the end knowledge shall be increased and people shall go to and fro. We without doubt in that era and man by neccesities will have to make do with the risk that accompany the products of the increase in the knowledge of science and technology.
An american professor who would not fly once argued against flying that if God had wish that we fly, He would have given us wings. With occasional air disasters occuring, we are still being assured that travelling by air is the safest and I might want to agree with this claim but then flying could sometimes be seen as one of the risk taken ventures that mankind ever embarked upon. If we have to move at the fast lane of life as the economic social factors demand, we can not avoid flying. No wonder at every safe landing as the plane touches the ground, passengers clap there hands in approval of the unified relief that accompany safe landing.
I always ask for whom is the applause? Could it be for the pilot and his crew for a good job done in flying the plane without disaster or just a reflex action motivated by the joy of safe landing? I would say the two combined is the answer. I am one of the introverts who would not express their joy and satisfaction by clapping but all the same I feel satisfy and appreciative of the good job done by the pilot and his crew but I always give the greater glory to God for granting us journey mercies.

A PASSENGER MIRACLE TOUCH

Passenger fixes faulty airliner

The airliner landed at Glasgow only 35 minutes late
Holidaymakers escaped a long delay to their flight home when a passenger fixed a mechanical problem with their plane.

Passengers on Thomas Cook flight TXC9641 from Menorca were told to expect an eight-hour wait while an engineer was flown out from the UK.

One passenger then identified himself as a qualified aircraft engineer and offered to try to remedy the fault.

He was successful, and the plane landed in Glasgow only 35 minutes late.

A spokeswoman for Thomas Cook said the company followed strict procedures to ensure the man was qualified to work on the aircraft, a Boeing 757-200, during the incident on Saturday.

The passenger worked for another airline, Thomsonfly, which has a reciprocal maintenance agreement with Thomas Cook.

"When they announced there was a technical problem he came forward and said who he was, " she said.

"We checked his licence and verified he was who he said he was, and he was able to fix the problem to avoid the delay.

"We are very grateful that he was on the flight that day."

SAFETY FROM TOXIC AIR IN PLANES

LETS PLAY SAFE: by B.E. Ajibola

I have always believe that salvation belong to God and His blessing is upon His people. However there are certain things in creation which we can not explain. The reason why a fourten year old girl was the only surviving passenger in the Yemen plane crash on the 23rd of June may remain a mystery for life. However, I always believe that the technology that brought about the building of an aeroplane has come a long way that if planes are constantly and effectively managed, there should not be much of air disaster as we witness in the aviation industry. There is the technical factor and there is also the human factor. Planes need be thoroughly servised and checked before take off and pilots must be well behaved staying away from alcohol and drugs. It is reported that the Yemenian air plane, airbus 330 that crashed into the Indian ocean had been banned in France by the Transport ministry because of irregularities. Such lapses if encouraged in the aviation industry may lead in increase in hazards occurrences. There must be a way whereby planes that have flown for a certain numbers of years and flights are regulated from carrying passengers. They can be converted into cargo planes.

ABOUT SAFETY AND SURVIVAL IN PLANE CRASH

Reports of a lone child having survived Tuesday's crash of a Yemenia Airways flight in the Indian Ocean have people wondering: How does anyone survive a plane crash?


Part of a United Airlines DC-10 lies next to the runway in Sioux City, Iowa, after the plane crashed in July 1989.

"I just don't think there's any pattern to survivability. It's just luck of the draw and depends on how the plane goes in," said aviation expert John Eakin, head of Air Data Research in Helotes, Texas.

Not counting Tuesday's disaster, there have been 12 airliner crashes since 1970 that yielded a sole survivor, according to data compiled by Dr. Todd Curtis, director of the Airsafe.com Foundation. Five of those survivors were minors and four were crew members, accounting for 75 percent of the total.

"I can't figure out for the life of me why crew members and children tend to be disproportionate in these sole-survivor events," Curtis said. Watch what happened to the Yemenia flight »

One factor favoring flight crew members is their location in the sturdy cockpit and proximity to windows, he said. Flight attendants often use shoulder harnesses when they are seated, aviation writer David Noland added.

Where one is seated is a factor only in that it helps to be far from the point of impact, Eakin said.

Sole-survivor crashes
January 26, 1972, Czechoslovakia: JAT DC-9; 27 killed; crew member fell to ground inside tail section

January 29, 1985; Reno, Nevada: Galaxy Airlines Lockheed Electra; 70 killed; boy, 17, thrown from wreckage

January 3, 1987, Ivory Coast: Varig 707-300; 50 killed; one passenger survived

August 16, 1987, Detroit, Michigan: Northwest MD-82; 154 killed; 4-year-old girl found in wreckage

November 14, 1992, Vietnam: Vietnam Airlines Yak 40; 30 killed; surviving passenger found eight days later

November 20, 1993, Macedonia: Avioimpex Yak 42D; 223 killed; one passenger survived

March 1995, Colombia: Intercontinental Colombia DC-9-10; 51 killed; 9-year-old girl survived

September 1997, Cambodia: Vietnam Airlines Tu-134B; 65 killed; 1-year-old boy survived

December 16, 1997, United Arab Emirates: Tajikistan Airlines Tupolev 154B; 85 killed; crew member survived

March 6, 2003, Algeria: Air Algerie 737-200; 102 killed; crew member survived

July 8, 2003, Sudan: Sudan Airways 737-200C; 116 killed; 3-year-old boy survived

August 27, 2006, Lexington, Kentucky: Comair CRJ-100; 49 killed; co-pilot survived


Sources: airsafe.com, planecrashinfo.com
"I don't think there's any particular type of aircraft or position in an aircraft which is more survivable, because it pretty much depends on what type of accident -- it depends on how the aircraft impacts," Eakin said. "Sometimes, the survivors are all located in the tail, sometimes in the forward fuselage. I don't think there's any rhyme or reason to it."

A 2007 Popular Mechanics magazine article, researched and written by Noland, presented a different view.

Noland analyzed 20 U.S. airline crashes in which at least one person lived and one person died. The statistics indicate that seats farther back in a plane are safer in crashes, the article said.

"Passengers near the tail of a plane are about 40 percent more likely to survive a crash than those in the first few rows up front," Noland wrote.

Passengers in seats behind the wings had a 69 percent survival rate in crashes that included at least one fatality, Noland wrote. Those with seats in coach areas over and forward of the wings survived 56 percent of the time, and passengers in first class and business class had a 49 percent survival rate, he found.

"To me, it's fairly obvious: You hit something going fast and obviously, the front is going to get crunched more than the back," Noland told CNN. "To quote one [National Transportation Safety Board] guy, 'Planes don't back into mountains.'"

Even in other types of crashes -- runway overruns, forced landings, etc. -- the plane is always going forward, so the front takes the impact, Noland said.

"That's why they put the crash recorders in the tail," he said.

Wide-bodied aircraft -- such as the Boeing 747 and 777 and the Airbus A310 and A330 -- tend to yield more survivors than smaller ones, Curtis said. He chalked up that trend to what he called the SUV theory: Larger crush zones provide more and larger areas of survivability.

Both Curtis and Eakin pointed to the July 1989 crash of United Airlines Flight 232 in Sioux City, Iowa. Spectacular video footage showed the McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 cartwheeling down an airport runway as pilot Al Haynes and first officer William Records tried to land the airliner without hydraulic controls. Of the 296 people aboard the plane, 111 were killed but 185 survived.

"Anyone looking at that crash at first, the video, would say, 'Well gee, how could anybody survive this?'" Curtis said.

"That was kind of a classic. A bunch of people survived that," Eakin said. "It looked terrible, and still so many people walked away from that. And there was no real pattern to where the survivors were located."

Availability of an escape route may be the biggest determining factor, Eakin said.

"If the impact is survivable, that's the next challenge: getting the heck out of the thing," he said. "I think in Sioux City, a lot of the survivors exited through cracks in the fuselage. That's kind of the ultimate escape route, but you gotta do whatever you gotta do to get out."

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He noted the January 15 ditching of a US Airways Airbus A320 in New York's Hudson River, in which no one was killed and injuries were minimal, although the craft quickly filled with cold water.

"That really demonstrated how important it is to get out quickly," Eakin said.

Proximity of rescue equipment and personnel is key to survival too, Curtis said. If fires can be extinguished and survivors taken to hospitals quickly, victims have a better chance of surviving, he said.


Despite his statistical evidence that the rear of the plane is safer, writer Noland doesn't seek out a back seat when he flies.

"I try to get a window seat," he said. "Planes are so safe, it's unbelievable how safe they are. The odds of a crash are so minuscule that I don't even worry about it."