Original subtitles

Man: I remember that it was very windy.

Narrator: As a typhoon bears down on Taiwan,

a 747 hurtles down the runway at Chiang Kai-Shek Airport.

First officer: V-1.

Pilot: V-1.

Man: Your chances of being in an airplane crash

are vanishingly small.

Man: At a certain time the plane kind of lost it.

Narrator: On October 31, 2000,

159 passengers could not beat the odds.

Man: The midsection people,

they were killed by the fire and smoke.

Narrator: Many are left wondering...

Man: I was in the rear section of the aircraft.

Narrator: Could the key to surviving a plane crash

be a matter of choosing the right seat?

Flight Attendant: Run as far away as you can.

Pilot: Mayday, mayday!

Narrator: Singapore Airlines flight 6 taxis to the runway

through heavy wind and rain

at Taipei's Chiang Kai-Shek Airport.

Taiwan sits inside Asia's infamous Typhoon Alley--

and tonight the island nation is bracing for the worst.

James fang: Every year we have three to four typhoon.

It was a terrible night, it was stormy weather,

strong wind, heavy rain.

Narrator: Typhoon Xangsane, with winds of 99 miles an hour,

is closing in fast.

Flight 6 needs to get airborne

before the brunt of the storm hits.

Jeff wise: Even a 747 can't take off in an actual typhoon.

The closer the storms gets, the more likely it is

that these guys are gonna get stuck in Taipei.

Narrator: There are 179 people

on board the overnight flight to Los Angeles,

including business traveler Francois Parent.

Francois parent: Being a frequent flyer,

I was not too concerned about the weather

because that didn't bother me in the past.

Narrator: Parent has requested an aisle seat.

The only one available on this flight is in row 65,

the second to the last row of the plane.

He has no idea how important his seating assignment will become.

Parent: As far as I could tell, everything was normal

and we were gonna take off as usual.

Controller: Singapore 6, for your information,

surface winds 0-2-0 at 2-4, gusts 4-3.

Latiff Cyrano: Thank you, sir, Singapore 6.

Foong Chee Kong: Let me know when it hits 30.

Narrator: If the crosswind hits 30 knots,

the crew will have to abandon their takeoff.

Parent: As we were taxiing down the runway, it was,

I remember that it was very windy

and that the plane was moving left to right.

Controller: Singapore 6, you are cleared for takeoff,

runway 05-left.

Foong: Okay. Thrust ref toga-toga.

Narrator: Captain Foong Chee Kong

decides to proceed with the takeoff.

Foong: Okay, my control.

Narrator: The 747 accelerates towards takeoff speed,

180 miles an hour.

Cyrano: V-1.

Foong: V-1.

Parent: As the plane was gaining speed to take off,

at a certain time the plane kind of lost it.

What's happening?

I took the safety position.

Then I felt the airplane spinning around.

It was like inside of a merry-go-round.

I thought I was gonna die.

Narrator: The plane's tanks are loaded

with 15,000 gallons of fuel.

It ignites immediately.

Parent: Then I opened my eyes

and I saw a fireball coming at me.

I was lucky enough to bend down

and hide from the fire coming by me.

I got burns on my hands and my arm.

Controller: Direct emergency vehicles to runway 05-left.

Singapore 6, do you read?

Singapore 6?

Cyrano: Let's go, go, go!

Parent: There was smoke in the airplane.

It was, we couldn't breathe.

Flight Attendant: Everybody move forward quickly.

Once you're off the plane, run as far away as you can.

Go, go.

Parent: There was an older person before me,

and he had difficulties moving,

and so I was able to lift him up so that he could move his way.

Flight Attendant: Run away from the plane.

Parent: There was a stewardess there.

She showed me the direction where to run,

and then we were asked to run away as fast as possible.

Narrator: Rescuers must battle both the flames

and the violent storm.

Fang: It takes about 15 minutes to control the fire

and 45 minutes to extinguish all of them,

so it's a difficult task for the firefighters.

Narrator: The massive 747 has broken into pieces.

Of the 179 passengers and crew, 83 are dead.

Most victims were seated in the middle of the plane

where the fuel-fed fire was most severe.

Fang: Unfortunately the midsection passengers,

they were killed by the fire and smoke.

Narrator: The 96 survivors include all three pilots,

some passengers in first class

and everyone in the rear section,

where Francois Parent was seated.

Fang: The tail section broken apart from the midsection,

and there was less fire in the tail section,

and most of the people survived.

Narrator: One of Asia's busiest airports is immediately closed.

It is now up to the aviation safety Council of Taiwan

to determine the cause of the disaster.

Thomas Wang: When I went to the crash site,

I can see all the wreckage spread on the runway,

and most of the wreckage were already burned

by the post-impact fire.

Narrator: Jeff wise is an expert

in aviation accidents and their causes.

Wise: When you're an investigator

looking at a crash scene,

you have to keep an open mind.

You have to assume it could be any conceivable factor,

from the machinery to the human factors

to the weather to who knows what.

Narrator: Much of the wreckage is on a runway

adjacent to five left.

Investigators' first thought is

did fierce winds blow the plane off course?

Wang: The weather in Taiwan, the whole Taiwan is very bad.

In CKS Airport, the gusts up to 50 to 60 knots.

Narrator: As the typhoon moves in,

the winds grow even stronger,

making the investigators' work next to impossible.

Fang: During the stormy weather

it's difficult to do anything outside at the accident site.

Wang: They can't even stand on the runway

because the wind is very strong.

Fang: Let's get inside. This will have to wait.

Narrator: Close examination of the crash site is put off

until the storm passes.

But investigators want to talk to the flight crew right away.

Thomas Wang is the ASC's lead human factors investigator.

Wang: As investigators, we believe

that we should interview the pilots or operator

as soon as possible

because we believe that human memory will fade over time.

Wise: Just as a machine has certain failure modes,

ways in which it will most likely break,

a human being has specific ways

in which they're more likely to fail psychologically,

and this is what a human factors investigator is looking for.

Narrator: Captain Foong Chee Kong

is interviewed within hours of the crash.

Wang: What happened?

Foong: We collided with something on the runway

V-1.

Just as we hit V-1.

There's something there!

There was something on that runway.

Wang: Could you tell what it was?

Foong: No. We could not see all the way down the runway.

Wang: What happened after you collided?

Foong: We tried to pull up, but it was too late.

We called for an evacuation, but the intercom was dead.

Evacuate.

Let's go, go, go, go!

We attempted to get everyone out of the plane

as quickly as possible,

but the fire was so intense.

There was something on that runway

that should not have been there.

Narrator: The focus of the investigation

now shifts from the weather

to a potential obstacle on the runway.

But the search for answers will have to wait

until calmer skies return to Taipei.

Narrator: The morning after a fiery crash

that claims 83 lives...

Chiang Kai-Shek Airport remains closed.

Thousands of passengers are stranded.

For Singapore Airlines,

the accident mars an excellent safety record.

It's the company's first fatal crash in 28 years.

Media speculation focuses on the pilots' decision

to take off in the face of an oncoming typhoon.

With the weather now improving,

investigators scour the wreckage for clues.

If flight 6 collided with something on the runway,

they need to figure out what it was.

Fang: It's difficult for us to collect all of the information,

all of the wreckage, because it's blown to everywhere.

Narrator: Accidents during takeoff

can involve more than one aircraft.

In 1991, a Skywest Metroliner

preparing to take off from Los Angeles

was crushed by a U.S. Air 737

attempting to land on the same runway.

34 people were killed.

Italy's worst air disaster unfolded

on a foggy morning in Milan

when an SAS MD-87 collided on takeoff

with a Cessna that was crossing the runway.

No one on either plane survived the impact.

118 people died.

Fang: Any signs of another plane?

And no other flights unaccounted for.

Narrator: But at Chiang Kai-Shek Airport

this is quickly ruled out.

All of the debris appears to be from just one plane, flight 6.

Fang: He didn't hit a plane.

Narrator: Investigators need to identify

the thousands of pieces of mangled wreckage.

Fang: Part of the flap assembly, the right wing.

Narrator: The precise location of the pieces

should tell them how the 747 came apart.

On closer inspection, they make an unexpected find.

It looks like pieces of construction equipment

are mixed in with the aircraft debris

strewn across the pavement.

Wise: It wouldn't be hard to imagine some large object

being blown into an engine or knocking out the windshield.

There's lots of things that could have happened.

Narrator: Chiang Kai-Shek Airport has three runways.

Runway 6 is at the airport's south end.

Runway 5-left is the one flight 6 was using.

Parallel to that is runway 5-right,

a runway closed for construction.

Investigators consider the possibility

that loose material from the construction site

could be the culprit.

Wang: Maybe the heavy, strong wind blow off something

and hit the aircraft and the aircraft then,

then crashed just after takeoff.

Narrator: If construction material

was not properly secured,

it might have blown onto runway 5-left

directly into the plane's path.

Foong: There's something there!

Narrator: But investigators soon find evidence

that tells a different story--

tire tracks on runway 5-right

heading straight towards the construction equipment.

This runway has been closed for weeks.

There should be no fresh tracks on it.

Wang: We can actually see the tire mark of this aircraft

starting from the takeoff point

all the way to the first impact point.

We can still see that gray tire mark on the runway.

Narrator: The tire marks on runway 5-right

lead investigators to a startling conclusion.

Fang: This is our point of impact.

Narrator: It now seems more likely

that some unimaginable error occurred,

putting flight 6 on the wrong runway.

Wang: We have to compare the tire mark

with the data we collect from the flight data recorder

and then put it together.

Narrator: The only way to confirm the flight's route

is to find the black boxes.

Wang: The black box is the flight recorder

and the cockpit voice recorder.

If we have them,

then we can probably find out what actually happened.

Narrator: Both the flight data recorder

and the cockpit voice recorder

are stored in the rear of the plane,

the least damaged section.

Investigators are able to study the information

within a day of the crash.

Wang: When we get information out of the recorder, we read it,

then we can know the exact position of the aircraft.

Narrator: They compare positioning information

from the flight data recorder

to a satellite image of the airport.

It confirms their theory.

Fang: He's, he's lining up with the wrong runway.

Narrator: Somehow the plane ended up

on runway 5-right instead of 5-left.

Fang: 1,243 meters down the runway

he collides with the construction equipment.

Wang: He was supposed to be here.

How did they end up here instead?

Wise: It doesn't seem like a very obvious mistake

to take off on a wrong runway.

It seems like the kind of thing

that shouldn't happen ever under any circumstances.

Narrator: For investigators, it's hard to believe

that such a fundamental error occurred.

Wang decides to interview Captain Foong again.

Wang: Usually we'll do an initial interview

right after the accident

and then maybe wait for another day or two.

Then we will re-interview again.

Maybe at that time they can tell more about what happened.

Did you receive this notice?

Foong: Of course I did.

Everyone did.

We discussed it during our briefing.

Narrator: Wang learns that the flight crew received

written notice that runway 5-right was closed.

Foong: Tell them we'll take 5-left.

Wang: According to the flight data recorder,

you were not on 5-left.

The accident took place on 5-right.

You collided with the construction equipment

on 5-right.

Here's the point of impact.

You were taking off from the wrong runway.

Foong: Impossible.

We were on 5-left.

I'm sure of it.

Wang: The three pilots believed they were on the correct runway,

05-left, even after the accident happened.

What makes you so sure you were on 5-left?

Foong: The controller would have said if we weren't.

Controller: Singapore 6, runway 05-left.

Winds 0-2-0 at 2-8.

Gusts 5-0.

Cleared for takeoff.

Narrator: With no planes ahead of them,

the Singapore pilots received advance clearance

to take off as soon as they reach the runway.

Cyrano: Cleared for takeoff runway 05-left, Singapore 6.

Narrator: What puzzles investigators

is why air traffic controllers didn't notice that the 747

had turned onto the wrong runway.

Controller: I couldn't see them in that weather.

Narrator: When interviewed, the controllers describe

how the storm limited visibility that night to about 2,000 feet.

Controller: And they confirmed runway 5-left.

That's the last I heard from them.

Fang: Hmm. 1,600 meters between the runway and the tower.

There's no way he saw them.

Narrator: The crew assumed that the tower

was monitoring their progress,

but the controller had lost sight of the plane.

Investigators now try to determine

if the pilots themselves were lost in the storm.

Wang: How was the visibility?

Could you see where you were going the whole time?

Foong: We couldn't see very far, but we could see far enough.

Cyrano studied the map while I followed the taxi lights.

It led us directly to the runway.

Cyrano: Okay, green lights are here.

Narrator: It appears that the crew had no trouble

seeing their route as they taxied,

yet flight 6 still ended up on the wrong runway.

Wang: Was this the map you were using?

Foong: Yes.

Wang: You didn't have any trouble reading it?

Foong: I wasn't reading it.

My first officer and the relief pilot

were following the map.

I only glanced at it when the route changed.

Wang: They changed the route?

Foong: Yes.

Narrator: Wang learns that the ground controller

issued a last minute change for their route to the runway.

Cyrano: Singapore 6, request taxi.

Controller: Singapore 6, taxi to runway 06 via Taxiway--

correction, runway 05-left

via Taxiway Sierra Sierra West Cross and November Papa.

Cyrano: I missed that. What was it?

Foong: Sierra Sierra West Cross and November Papa.

Wise: Pilots have to deal

with last minute changes all the time.

The situation becomes complicated, it becomes hairy.

Now you've got a typhoon bearing down on you.

You've got time pressure.

You're also having to deal

with a difficult environment for taxiing.

You've got crosswinds, you've got gusts.

So you're under pressure.

Narrator: Investigators need to understand

how the crew responded to that pressure.

They turn to the cockpit voice recorder.

If there was any confusion in the cockpit

on the way to the runway,

the recording could reveal it.

Wang: CVR can provide investigators a sense

of what the environment that the pilots are actually working in.

Foong: Tell them we'll take 5-left.

What's the latest weather?

NG Kheng Leng: This is the latest: 0-2-0-3-6, gust 52.

Still within limits.

Foong: That's better. More on the headwind side.

Narrator: The crew runs through all the mandatory procedures.

Foong: Taxiing slowly.

Okay, turning left, skidding right.

A lot of rudder work here.

NG: Crosswinds.

Foong: Yeah.

Wang: They don't seem confused.

Wise: What they heard was a crew that was calm, that was focused,

that was doing what they needed to do.

Wang: They're doing a procedure checklist.

They check the weather.

They discuss the safety issues,

so if pilot doing everything they're supposed to do,

why did the accident happen?

Foong: There's something there!

Narrator: Taiwanese investigators still can't answer

why the crew of Singapore Airlines flight 6

made the fatal error of turning onto the wrong runway.

They hope the crew's last moments of conversation

can provide a clue.

Foong: I'm going to go very slow here.

Otherwise, we'll skid.

Cyrano: Okay, nine knots.

Wise: Normally a 747 taxis about 25 knots.

On this night, they're going nine knots.

They were doing exactly what they should have done,

taking it nice and slow.

When you've got really strongly gusting winds,

you want to taxi slowly.

You've not only got to deal with the massive surface area

of the tail fin behind you,

but you've got a very slick, slippery runway.

Cyrano: Okay. Winds okay.

Wang: From our view, the pilot

is pretty much follow the procedure

and they follow what they have to do.

Cyrano: Next one, next one's N-1.

Foong: Okay, second right.

Cyrano: Second right. That's right.

Narrator: The plane must now taxi 850 feet further

before turning onto runway 5-left, but it doesn't.

Fang: So why did they turn here?

Narrator: Investigators study the pilots' work records,

looking for anything that could help explain their mistake.

Wang: We will collect the pilots' training record,

at least for three years before the accident.

Narrator: Captain Foong Chee Kong

started with Singapore Airlines as a cadet

over 20 years ago.

He'd flown out of this airport more than ten times.

First officer Latiff Cyrano

was a former officer in the Singapore Army.

Fang: He's flown with Captain Kong

several times before.

Wang: Almost all his hours were on the 747.

Narrator: The relief pilot, Captain NG Kheng Leng,

had eight years experience and was used to long flights.

Wang: So for a commercial pilot

they were a very experienced team.

Wise: Every one of them was a better than average pilot.

Wang: They all had excellent records.

Fang: And yet somehow they made an unbelievable mistake.

Wang: Why the three pilots cannot tell the difference

when they take off from 05-right?

Narrator: Something must have led the crew

to take a wrong turn.

But exactly what remains a mystery.

Determined to find out what went wrong on flight 6,

investigators decide to put themselves in the pilot's seat--

the cockpit of a 747 at Chiang Kai-Shek Airport.

Wang: All right. Let's get going.

Narrator: In similar weather conditions,

they follow the route taken by flight 6.

Wang: We want to know what the pilots' working environment

and what outside environment may affect their decision,

situational awareness or their decision making

during that night.

Narrator: They taxi slowly towards runway 5-left,

matching Captain Foong's speed.

Wang: Okay, take the turn on N-1 nice and slow.

Narrator: The plane turns onto the final Taxiway.

From this point, the flight 6 crew

should have taxied past runway 5-right

towards the turn for runway 5-left.

Wang: Now we continue onto 5-right.

How could they have missed that sign? It's huge.

Narrator: Signs marking 5-right

are clearly visible from the cockpit.

But investigators see nothing that would tell a pilot

the runway is out of service.

Wang: There is no indication that this runway's closed.

Green lights as far as I can see.

Wise: They were seeing ambiguous information.

There were some signs that it was a runway.

There were some signs it wasn't a runway,

but because they were expecting to see a runway,

that's what they saw.

Narrator: But inside the cockpit,

there is an indication that the plane is on the wrong runway.

The instrument landing system isn't locking on to a beacon

that should be dead ahead.

Wang: This should tell you something's not right.

Narrator: If the plane had been on the correct runway,

the display would have been centered.

Before departing, pilots program the plane's computer

to lock on to a beacon at the end of their designated runway.

Flight 6's navigation system would have been scanning

for that signal just before takeoff.

The beacon was clearly off to their left, not ahead of them.

Investigators need to know how the pilots

could have missed this obvious sign.

They once again study the information from the FDR

and compare it to the cockpit voice recorder.

Wang: Okay.

NG: It's coming in fast.

The longer we delay, the worse it's gonna get.

Foong: Agreed.

Narrator: The voice recording reveals that the crew

wanted to get off the ground before conditions got any worse.

Wise: It's a challenging environment,

and the longer they wait,

the more challenging it's gonna get.

Narrator: Typhoon Xangsane is bearing down on Taipei,

threatening to ground all flights

at Chiang Kai-Shek Airport.

The crew of flight 6 knows their 14-hour journey to Los Angeles

is on the verge of being cancelled.

NG: 2-4 gust, 4-3.

Narrator: Relief pilot NG

needs to carefully calculate the crosswinds,

checking to see if they've exceeded 30 knots--

the point at which they'll have to abort the flight.

Wind direction during takeoff is critical.

Pilots want to fly into a headwind

to attain maximum lift.

A strong crosswind can literally blow a plane off the runway.

Controller: Singapore 6, runway 05-left,

winds 0-2-0 at 2-8, gusts 5-0.

Cleared for takeoff.

Narrator: Right now, the pilots are passing signs

that clearly identify the runways.

What happens in the next few seconds

is the key to why they missed them.

Foong: 0-2-0 from the left.

Cyrano: 0-2-0.

Narrator: The winds consume the crew's attention.

Wise: They were scrupulously looking at the tables

to figure out if they had exceeded

the crosswind component.

They were checking it so meticulously,

they weren't paying attention to something else.

NG: 28.5.

It's getting close to 30, sir.

Foong: Okay.

Wang: The captain was taxiing the aircraft in very slow speed

and the first officer is doing the before-takeoff checklist

and the relief pilot is working on the crosswind component,

so all pilots, they are occupied by something.

They do not have enough attention

to actually check which runway they are taxiing onto.

Foong: I'm gonna go very slow here.

Otherwise we'll skid.

Cyrano: Okay, 9 knots.

Fang: Doesn't sound like anyone's tracking their route.

Narrator: The crew was so concerned

with taxiing safely to the runway

that they stopped paying attention

to where they were headed.

Wang: They believe they are making a right turn

onto the correct runway.

Unfortunately, that's not the correct runway.

That's 05-right.

Wise: What you've got here is a classic case of tunnel vision.

You've got pilots who are working under enormous stress,

time pressure, the safety of their passengers is of concern,

and so their ability to deal

with multiple streams of information

is becoming narrower and narrower.

Narrator: Investigators also consider the possibility

that Captain Foong's extreme caution

might in fact have worked against him.

Cyrano: Okay, nine knots.

Fang: The captain intentionally taxis slowly.

Wise: The captain says to the crew,

"keep it slow. Be careful.

Let's really focus on what we're doing,"

and they do, but they focus on the wrong things.

Narrator: Captain Foong was taxiing

at a speed of 9 knots, about 9 miles an hour.

Because the turn took so long, Captain Foong might have thought

he'd gone further than he really did.

So much time had passed that he may have thought

he had already reached runway 5-left.

Wise: One of the real heartbreaking moments

of this tragedy

is that instant when they come so close to noticing

that something's wrong.

Narrator: Just before takeoff,

the crew had one last chance to avoid disaster.

Wise: The first officer points out

they're nowhere near the center line of the runway.

Cyrano: The PVD hasn't lined up.

Narrator: It should have been a warning to the crew

that something was wrong.

Foong: Never mind. We can see the runway just fine.

Narrator: Captain Foong ignores the warning.

Wise: The big irony of this crash

is that they were taking off in very dangerous circumstances,

near the limit of what their plane was capable of handling,

but it wasn't the weather that did them in,

but rather the pressure of dealing with the storm

distracted them from what turned out to be the real question--

were they in the right place?

Cyrano: Ready, sir.

Foong: Left aileron into wind.

Wise: The human brain is always trying to convince itself

that it has a complete picture of what's going on,

and so that when contradictory information comes in

there's a tendency called confirmation bias

to ignore it

and to concentrate on what you think is happening.

Foong: Okay, my control.

Cyrano: V-1.

Foong: V-1.

Narrator: What happened next was inevitable.

Foong: There's something there!

Fang: There's the point of impact.

The clues were there. They ignored them.

Wise: The entire tragedy would have been avoided

if the crew had picked up even one of these clues.

Narrator: It's finally clear why Singapore Airlines flight 6

ended up on the wrong runway.

But with hundreds of planes taking off

during the annual typhoon season,

the challenge now is to make sure it never happens again.

Taiwan's aviation safety council recommends

swift changes to pilots' procedures and training.

They recommend more frequent communication

between controllers

and pilots who are taxiing in poor weather.

Pilots must now report each of their movements

to the controller as they make them.

Pilot: Currently turning left onto Taxiway November-1.

Narrator: New checklists are also designed,

which include a visual confirmation step,

forcing pilots to confirm that they're on the correct runway

before they take off.

Chiang Kai-Shek Airport comes under criticism

for keeping an out-of-service runway lit

and for failing to either barricade

or clearly mark it closed.

Wise: Chiang Kai-Shek was not compliant

with current International Airport regulations.

They didn't have the ground radar

that would have told the tower where this plane actually was.

Narrator: In aviation, fatal crashes

are the most powerful catalysts for change.

Following the disaster,

authorities install ground radar at the airport in Taipei.

It allows the tower to track a plane's position,

even in bad weather.

Singapore Airlines comes down hard

on the pilots of flight 6.

The captain and first officer both lose their jobs.

Wise: One of the lessons of this accident

is that you can have an exemplary crew

performing their duties with utmost care,

and they still make a mistake with fatal consequences.

Narrator: The crash of flight 6 also highlights another lesson--

the decisions passengers make before takeoff,

including where to sit,

can sometimes make the difference

between life and death.

Following his brush with death

at Taipei's Chiang Kai-Shek Airport,

Francois Parent has reason to take credit

for his own survival.

Parent: It was just basic survival instinct,

and we had no time to think about what's happening.

When I realized that my life was at risk,

I had a thought for my family,

and that gave me the energy to do something to save my life.

Flight Attendant: Run as far away as you can.

Go, go!

Wise: They say that fear is contagious,

and that's particularly true in a closed environment

where people are fairly densely clustered together.

Flight Attendant: Move forward quickly.

Wise: Fear is contagious, but so is courage.

Parent: Come. Come with me.

Narrator: The accident in Taiwan raises the question--

what can passengers do to improve their odds

of surviving when disaster strikes?

Although experts do not all agree,

statistics suggest some seats are safer than others.

Wise: Studies have found that there is

a slightly higher percentage of survival

in the back of an aircraft.

Narrator: During a crash, the tail section can break away

from the main fuselage and the wings

where fuel is stored.

Though opinions vary, some statistics show

that passengers seated at the rear of the plane

have the highest average survival rate, 69%.

In the over wing section, that number drops to 56%.

In the forward section, your odds of surviving a crash

are less than even, 49%.

Many experts believe that sitting

within five rows of an exit

gives you the best chance of survival.

Also, aisle seats are slightly safer than window seats.

Parent: I was sitting in an aisle seat

in the rear of the aircraft.

Wise: Most accidents take place on takeoff and on landing,

so if you're concerned about surviving on an airplane,

that's the time to pay attention.

Flight Attendant: This plane is equipped with ten exits--

four at the font, four at the back

and one over each wing.

Fang: If the passengers listen to the safety briefing,

they know what they have to do in the first seconds.

They know how to get out of the aircraft.

Wise: In the seat pocket in front of you

there's a safety card.

On it there's a diagram

that shows you how to get to the exits.

Look at it.

Just put in your mind what you have to do to get there,

because when things go crazy in the smoke and the darkness,

you won't be able to figure it out.

Narrator: But one statistic stands out above all others.

Wise: Your chances of being in an airplane crash

are vanishingly small.

They say it's probably true that you're more likely

to get into an accident driving to the airport

than you are in the airplane.

I think there are better things to worry about

than where you're sitting when an airplane crashes.