Since the start of 2025, numerous aviation incidents, including the June 12 Air India plane crash, have increased anxieties about flying.
The London-bound passenger plane with more than 200 people on board crashed shortly after taking off from an airport in India’s western city of Ahmedabad on June 12.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national, is the sole survivor of the plane crash. He told outlets he escaped through an exit door seconds after the collision, leading those to wonder whether his exact seat was the safest in the entire plane.
Is it? Here’s what experts say.
What’s the safest place to sit on a plane?
There is no “safest seat.” Airplane crashes are dynamic events, and surviving depends on luck, external factors and the airplane’s engineering, according to USA TODAY.
For example, a seat closer to the front will typically be safer if a plane’s tail section sheers off. In a head-on collision, a seat closer to the rear may offer passengers the best chance for survival.
But is 11A the magic seat? Ramesh said his 11A seat was near an emergency exit, and he had managed to escape.
Reuters reported that sitting next to an exit door might help you survive an accident, but it won’t always be 11A because “aircraft can have dozens of different configurations.”
“In this particular instance, because the passenger was sitting adjacent to the emergency exit, this was obviously the safest seat on the day,” Ron Bartsch, Chairman at Sydney-based AvLaw Aviation Consulting, told the outlet. “But it’s not always 11A; it’s just 11A on this configuration of the Boeing 787.”
Where should you avoid sitting on a plane?
While there isn’t a “safest seat” on an airplane, is there the worst seat? It depends.
Travel Guide website SmartTravel shared last year’s list of the “worst” seats on an airplane and why you should avoid them, adding that “seat selection can make a huge difference in how comfortable you are in flight.”
According to David Duff, former Content Specialist at SeatGuru, the worst seats are generally “in the last row of the aircraft.”
“The seats (there) more than likely have limited recline, [and] the proximity to the lavatory and galley are going to be bothersome since you are dealing with noises, smells, people queueing to use the lavatory, and the flight crew opening and closing storage compartments and chatting,” he told the outlet.
Other seats to avoid include middle seats and the seats in front of an exit row.
What is the number one cause of plane crashes?
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, these are the top 10 causes of plane crashes in the U.S.:
What is the riskiest part of a flight?
It is not when you’re nearly 40,000 feet in the air. According to reports, the riskiest part of flying is the takeoff and landing.
CNN reports that of the 1,468 accidents the International Air Transport Association recorded in 2024, 770 occurred on landing and 124 during takeoff.
What are Florida’s major airports?
According to the Florida Department of Transportations, Florida’s aviation system includes over 125 public-use airports, including 21 airports offering commercial service spanning the Panhandle to the Florida Keys.
Here are the state’s major airports, with over 3 million passengers annually:
USA TODAY contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: What’s the safest seat on a plane in a crash. What we know and don’t know
Reporting by Samantha Neely, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
