Or rather, don’t. In front of the wings.
I’ve always been afraid of sitting in front of the wings of a plane ever since my NWT days. See, from Yellowknife to pretty well anywhere of consequence, the workhorse of the north was the 737 series by Boeing. Upon landing one of these beasties, the reverse thrust thingies on the engine would pop out, redirecting the engine blast. Forward, and to the side a bit.
Towards my window. See the picture below to get an idea of what I mean.
See what I mean? Freaky.
And then, there was always the lore that sitting aft (aero-geek-speak for in the back) was safer. Now, thanks to Popular Mechanics, the lore has been supported empirically.
The funny thing about all those expert opinions: They’re not really based on hard data about actual airline accidents. A look at real-world crash stats, however, suggests that the farther back you sit, the better your odds of survival. 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.
69% survival vs. 49%. A 20% absolute difference or a 40% greater likelihood of survivability ((49% – 69%) / 49%) * 100%. It’s all very mathematical, but it makes sense to me.
So… off to the back we go. Closer to the washrooms (which is yucky in a hijack situation, since the WCs are the first to get all plugged and stinky) and last with the food.