eli5: What is it that generally kills everyone onboard when a large plane crashes ? If they’re all still strapped in and the plane doesn’t explode, is it just the force of the impact?

Question

I watched that recreation of the scenario and the audio of that crash where the pilot had his kids in the cockpit and the older kid accidentally messed with something and the G forces made it so the pilots couldn’t fix the situation before the place lost too much altitude and crashed. Now I understand why people who aren’t seatbelted would die from such a crash, but Im just wondering what kills all the other passengers?

Are their insides crushed to death by impact with the seatbelt? Are their brains instantly nullified by hitting the inside of their skulls to forcibly?

And, is it also the same reason why train derailments are often equally deadly? Because there too… Thomas the tank engine stories make it look like a derailing is just a whoops! Better call Gordon! kinda situation…. But in the news it seems like all the passengers often get killed in those scenarios too…

What’s the deal?

In: 1

Answer 1

A common one in car crashes can be where their body looks otherwise OK but the sudden stop of the crash means the force of decelerating (stopping) the heart puts so much strain on the Aorta (Massive artery leaving the heart) that it tears and the victim bleeds to death in seconds