Is it because the plane will mostly hit nose first on the ground?
Has it ever been a case where people in front died/suffered injuries and the people in the back were fine? Is the back sturdier because it needs to withstand the force of the tail elevators?
In: Physics
Airplanes usually crash nose first. Therefore, passengers sitting in the rear of the plane tend to be cushioned by [a soft, foamy mist from the fur coats, caviar and dead rich people sitting in first class](https://www.cracked.com/article_19289_3-steps-to-not-sucking-at-air-travel-5Bchart5D.html).
Channel 4 in the UK did a program called [The Plane Crash](https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-plane-crash). They crashed a plane and a bunch of experts went through the crash site and investigated all kinds of neat metrics like what brace position works best and where you should sit to most likely survive.
The back of the plane will often break off during a crash-landing, separating itself from the fuel tanks/wings which usual start on fire, sparing the people seated in back from the lethal smoke and flames.
Someone (i forget who) said “if you tell me what kind of crash you going to have, i’ll tell you the best place to sit” Basically saying it’s just luck if you survive.
u/vksdann Netflix has a movie called Society of Snow. It’s about a sports team flying across the Andes mountains and crashed. I forget the numbers, but there were a number of survivors and many who did not survive.
The crash scene is pretty visceral. It does show exactly how the people at the front of the plane were crushed by the people in the back.
I actually had the opportunity to casually ask this question to a NTSB guy who was consulting with us. His equally casual answer was “No plane has ever reversed into a mountain”. Of course I’m sure there are an infinite amount of variables, but his answer was the very broad gist of it.
In a crash where there is a chance of survival the folks in the front are often crushed by the seats behind then breaking free, and with a person in them, they cause serious crush injuries and deaths. (Source: I’m a former Crash Rescue Firefighter.)
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