Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know? From House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, welcome to the podcast. This is Stuff you Should Know. And I'm Josh Clark and that's Chuck Bryant, Right, Chuck. That's a very formal introduction. Josh, I like it said, I'd loosen up a little bit made you're good. Check you remember we're talking about like the worst way to die in a podcast several podcast back, and uh, I said, for me, the worst way to die would be a plane crash, right, because you're on your way down and you're fully aware of the whole time, probably of what's about to happen. I can't think of anything worse than dying in a plane crash with a bunch of strangers. Yeah, you know, you don't want to die with people you don't know. Um, okay. So one of the reasons I said that was because I've had a terrible experience on a plane and nothing really untoward happened, Like there wasn't a lot of turbulence or anything like that. Um, but I I know it the hard way that I'm actually afraid of flying. Most of the time. When I fly, it's too you know, if I fly at all, it's to Europe or to Mexico or something like that. Right, so it's a long flight, I'll take a callot of pin and you know, drink some Scotch and then that's it. I wake up and I'm where I'm supposed to be. It's like a time travel machine to you pretty much. Yeah, so, um, and it works like a champ right. Um. But the thing is that I'm never conscious or at the very least cognizant or you know, doing anything but drooling the whole way right. Well, on the way back actually from Mexico, we had to lay over in Miami. I had no pharmaceuticals and uh I didn't have I think it was a cash flight, cash bar flight. I didn't have any money. Yeah, what's the point. I just shelled out like half of my life savings for this flight from Miami to Atlanta. And you can't give me liquor for free, right right? All right? So anyway, this this perfect storm of horribleness transpires and I'm in the air and all the way from Miami to Atlanta. Um, I'm I'm just completely convinced over and over again, the plane's about to go down, right, And I was actually looking up how fear works, right, and I found out that when you have a fear response, there's two things going on. Number one is this real quick knee jerk reaction that alerts you to danger, and our old friend fighter flights and um um fight or flight response perks up. And then you've got a more thoughtful process that takes a little longer, that's really analyzing context and stuff like that. And then if it if it, if it concludes you're not in danger, it tells your your hypothalamus to settle down, be rational, right, and then you calm down. But this kept happening over and over and over again. So for three hours, it was like every twenty seconds I was cresting the hill of a roller coaster. It was one of the worst things that ever happened to me. So a lesson learned. As far as I'm concerned, I'll never travel. I'm prepared again. Um. But but it turns out from what I understand, that the chances of me actually going down in a plane, but this isn't These facts and figures don't make me feel any better at all. But rationally speaking, I have a very little chance of going out on a plane, don't yeah about you want another number? Are you speculating? No? No, no, I know that. You know I was setting you up right there. Yeah, that's a good one. UM. I appreciate that. Your chances of dying, I'm sorry, no, I'm dying. Your chances of even being involved than an airline crash, um are one in eleven million. Uh And when you compare that to your chances of actually been killed in a car, And this is the one you always hear airline versus car or one in five thousand. But for some reason, I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm not driving the plane, so I have no control over its a car. It's I can maybe steer my way out of it. You think, well, that's one of the big reasons. It's not me thinking this. It's you know, people have studied this, and the lack of control has a huge uh part at place, UM as well as the fact that UM negative bias. So a plane crash gets a lot a lot of coverage, you know, so it seems like they're dropping out of the sky with regularity because they don't you know cover the news. The news didn't cover car crashes like now, you're definitely not going to see that in the NBC Nightly News. That's true. I've got I've got another another way of looking at it. Um, with numbers. Do you know you would have to fly on an airline every day for thirty five thousand years to be guaranteed up to that you're going to be in a plane crash? That isn't to becoming evidence. That is an awesome, awesome staff. That one came from air disaster dot com and um, that is a site that I would never recommend anyone go to if you have a fear of flying, because you don't because you sin, well, yeah exactly. I like to fly and it doesn't freak me out at all. Actually I don't like to fly. I hate to fly, but has nothing to do do with fear of crashing. What is just the long process of it? Yeah, the process, and I hate that and being stuck on the plane next to people and uh, touching strangers and people are obnoxious and the smells and I just hate it. Man. I think you're at a club, rubber, how you don't like to touching strangers? No, all right, well, good to know you see a little by the little club rubber. I've never heard that. Oh, I'll explain it later, okay, um, so okay, well, all right, we understand that there's very little chance that you're going to get into a plane rack, but they still happen. It does happen. Some people have a much closer relationship with fate and coincidence and chance than others. So let's say one of our listeners finds himself for herself in a plane that's going down. There's some things that you may or may not want to do. And actually before you even board, when you're booking a tap you made, there's some stuff you want to take into consideration, right, very true? Well like what uh, Well, before we get to that real quick, people should know just because your plane crashes doesn't mean you'll die either, just so reassuring I know. Uh. In fact, between nineteen eighty and two thousand, there were five six crashes in the US and more than of them survived. That's crazy. Most of these, I have to say this, we're take off and landing crashes, but of the twenty six extreme crashes, and I think that means you're at thirty three thousand feet and then you go to zero feet. Uh, you have more than fifty chance of surviving that. Even I would lose my mind. Yeah, I would lose my mind as I was walking away from that, you would. So. Having said that, if you are on a plane and you're a fan of ours and you're going down, we feel very bad for you. But future you unless you're actually listening to this on a plane that's going down. If so, hats off to you. Right, you've really achieved the you know, I don't know what the other two things are, but near the other one. The first thing most people want to find out about is there the safest seat? Yeah? And is there? Well, it depends on who you ask. If you ask the f a A, their official stances, No, there's not the safest seat exactly. That's what I think is. They can't really say that because people be like, I'm not sitting there, exactly. I don't want to sit in anything but the safe seat. Exactly. This is a death seat. But people study this stuff like you wouldn't believe. In popular mechanics, Great Magazine did a study and over a thirty six year period, they studied data plane crashes, commercial jet crashes um in the United States, and passengers in the rear of a plane are in fact, by their data, more likely to survive than those in towards the front of the pretty significant. Yeah. Yeah, so I guess any of you guys out there here about a book plane tickets, look for the back of the plane. Look for the back of the plane. The people don't listen to this podcast die right. People like sitting up front though, because you get the d board is deep board? Is that a word? You get embarked? This embarked off the plane quicker, and no one likes standing in that long line or everyone down they also die, Which one is it? You know you have to hear bye bye b bye, like a few more times than the people in the front. But you're going to survive if the plane goes down. So I've got some tips for you though, if you're on a plane before the crash ever happens, there's a few things you can do to improve your chances. Yeah, you're ready. Uh, this is something Actually after I wrote this article, I started doing this stuff. Oh yeah, man, definitely. I mean, I don't I'm not a I don't believe in bad luck in jinxes, But I thought I was jinxed I wrote this, Yeah, I thought I'm the guy that wrote the article, and then I'm going to be the one, ironically that perishes, you know from So once you're on board, get to your seat, find the exit row. This is a no brainer. But here's a little trick. What you want to do is you want to count how many rows are between you and the exit row and submit that number in your head, even if you're hopped up on pharmaceuticals and scotch. So if you count eleven rows to the exit row, a lot of times you might be in the dark. You might be underwater, you know. Think about that. You can feel the seats and feel one, two, three, five up to eleven, and then you know you took a left or right and you're at your exit right. And don't be misled by you know, a detached arm. You know if you're if you're in the dark, know the difference between a detached arm and a plane seats right. I did not put that tip in the article. I should have. The crash position is changed over the years, and not a lot of people know this. The did you get an impression of why the crash position changed. Well, my hope is that it's to make it more likely that you'll survive. I doubt if I hope there weren't politics or money behind it or anything like that. But I think you used to put your head between your legs and cover your between your knees and cover your head. Now that's not true. What you're supposed to do is you're supposed to extend your arms, uh, put your hands, um, cross your hands over each other, and put them against the seat, the seat back in front of you, and then put your head against the back of your hands. So you got your arms stretched out and I'm pressed against seat in front of you and your head resting on the back of your hands. That's the new official crass position. Yeah. Now I can actually see the lobby of the in Flight Magazine Publishers Association having that changed. You know, you're going down like wow, like can get that for that cheap? I want to know who does the artwork on those things. It's awesome. It's always the same, and there's like there's probably one dude in Vermont that does all that artwork. For one for the in flight little brochure you get, Oh, the calm ist Hindu cows people. The graphics. I love that that drawing, but yeah, it's it's very Uh. Here's a little tip for you. Before you get on the plane. You should dress appropriately. And then that sounds silly. If you're going to Maui, you want to have on your Hawaiian shirt and your flip flops. But during after a plane crash, there's glass everywhere, there's jet fuel, there's fire, You're gonna want to be covered. So you should never wear open toad shoes. Um, you should wear long sleeves and long sleeve shirt as well. Yeah, it makes sense if you're smart. Many people want hear this advice though, because, like I said, they want to be comfy on you know, the transcontinental flights. Uh. If you if you have a family family, say you and your wife have like three kids, three or four kids, and you're getting on the plane, you want to divide the responsibility up between the parents because it's a lot harder for one like the father to try and wrangle four family members. Uh, and you might get separated. So Dad's in charge of little Timmy and Johnny, and mom's in charge of Sue and uh Jane. Yeah, and if you if you have a lazy spouse, you may want to reconsider flying as a family. It's a good idea. Everything maybe on your shoulders. Yeah, and uh, listen, and this is a big one. Listen to the pre flight instructions. And now that's typically I guess you're trying to get your scotch Um. I'm annoyed with the people on both sides of myself. But this is when you need to be listening, because all planes are different, and there actually are some variations and instruction depending on what kind of Yeah. I actually, yeah, I thought it was all the same. So it's a good advice now. And and if the oxygen mass drops, you know you're in trouble, put it on yourself first. And if you love your wife more than life itself, you may have an instinct to put it on her. But you have to save yourself first before you can save any of anounced is the general thinking. Yeah, so those are those are starwinistic that last save yourself, save yourself so you can save others. Right, Okay, well, Chuck, as you were saying there, there's a substantial percentage of people who are in serious crashes that have survived, right, and one of them, uh was one one specific one was made into a movie, One plane crash. Right, what was it called Survive Alive? Yes, there's some I've I think it's alive. Okay, the the Uruguayan rugby team. You want to tell them about that? I well thought you were okay, Well, actually he's your favorite there's your favorite story. It's a great story. Um, and it's a great movie to actually um this Uh, this Uruguayan soccer team probably should have known a rugby team. I'm sorry, Um, they probably shouldn't known. They were on a plane for Chili and uh they were in the Andes Mountains, which is like just the they should call those things the widow makers. There's alwaysh yeah. Um. And it was Friday October, which if there's a day to not fly, it's that day, Friday the thirteenth in October. That's a bad day. Yeah, sorry, sure, yeah, okay. So their plane goes down, right, there's forty five people on board. It's not just the rugby team, but there's there's some others. Um and uh, basically for I think seventy two days. Um, the survivors some of them slowly died off. I think twelve initially died in the crash, and then over the course of time, another ten died over the next seventy two days. They didn't have any food or anything, so they ended up very famously resorting to cannibalism, which before they were they were finally find Yeah, well, you know, I love canible ism um and uh, yeah, the movie was alive. We hear rumors that there may be a follow up documentary about it coming. They're unsubstantiated, but keep an eye out for it. I think there has been a previous documentary some point too. Yeah, well, they just had like some some reunion I believe what was the maybe reunion or something or reunion because a lot of these guys are still alive and they reunited for you know, I don't want to ever be around you people again. To her, right, you know, exactly all right? But okay, so what other what other things can you do to you know, maybe stay alive besides campbell is um unless you're forced to resort to it. Right, Well, let's say your plane is crashed and you're on the ground. The first ninety seconds is vital. The golden what they call that golden time, and uh, airlines are are responsible for getting everyone off in those ninety seconds. That's the goal for the airline industry. Uh. So that's what you really need to be concerned about. There's gonna be fire, potentially jet fuel, nasty stuff burning, So you want to get down low because the fumes from this stuff is more likely to kill you than being burnt. Sure. Yeah, so what are airplane and see covers made of. Yeah, exactly nothing. You want to put in your pipe and smoke, you know what I'm saying. Um, So, you know you've got all this nasty, toxic stuff in the air, so you want to get low, just like it to teach you at home, you know, stop dropping roll. Well I think it's if you're on fire. Yeah, but they teach you to get down to go under the smoke. The same principle here. Uh. If you do make it off the plane, which is the ideal scenario, you want to get the heck away from there because it could blow up. It could you know, any number of things could happen, So you want to get as far away from the plane as you can safely and get behind something. If there's something there, there's you know, a huge rock or a big tree. I mean, you just want to try and shield yourself in case there's a big explosion, and um, do not do not try and get your baggage off your carry on bags. It's good. What if you have your pet on board? H boy, you're asking the wrong guy. I would try and save my pet, but they say, no, matter what it is, leave it behind, it's not worth it. And uh man, I didn't. I wasn't anticipating that. Again, beer brush off the Luckily my pets don't fly, so I want to ever have to, uh to deal with that. They also say don't drink. I saw that and I was no, I just can't. Okay, well I can't normal right, Yeah, so that makes sense. I don't like to drink aboard a flight. It kind of I don't know. I don't like it so without the pressure, and maybe it's the expense and those little bottles. I just I don't get it to love those little bottles. Uh. They also say not to inflate your life fest until um you're outside the cabin, because yeah, I can restrict your movement, but you don't want when you're running out of a plane on fire. No, you don't want to be at the exit and then your life fest gets hung on the seat before the explosion. And I think, Uh, that's about all the tips I have for you. You know, I do have one more thing, chuck. Um. People who survived plane crashes actually tend to um to uh score better here on emotional quotient tests things like post traumatic symptoms than people who have not been in plane crashes. They actually scored significantly higher. Um. There was a old Dominion University study of fifteen crash survivors across the United States, and um, these people just basically had a more positive outlook on life and didn't show the signs of stress like these people who who served as the control control group flew I think five times a year or more, and who had never been in a plane crash. Um, yeah, it makes sense. They theorized that it was because they've been through this huge ordeal, and um, they kind of learned not to sweat the small stuff. Seriously, it makes sense, doesn't it. Um. And people again who had shown control, who were in control, like you you were suggesting, they actually hadn't the highest score of all if they thought of themselves of having stayed in control or maybe help somebody off the plane. Apparently, you just cannot have a better outlook on life than if you've helped someone off a burning plane when you survived a plane crash. Yes, let's seek it out. I wish I knew what that feeling. Kind of felt like yeah, kind of but at the same time kind of like kind of not yeah exactly. Uh, there's just one more quickie, Josh. And people never let these listeners go. I would be remiss if I didn't say that. Um, try to stay calm. That's the number one thing you can do because panic. Uh people can't even unbuckle their seatbelt many times because they're in such a state of panic. And uh, you know, stay calm. If you can, Chuck, you may have just saved some lives. Wow, you should feel good about yourself. Well, you know, if you have any plane crash survivors that survived because of my advice, please let me know. And I might feel like that guy that saved the person from the burning Yeah, talk about a positive outlook online. And before we let you go, let us just give you a little peek at what Chuck and I think is the coolest article on the site. It's called do We really get wise or with age. It is by our colleague writer Molly Edmonds. It's just a dynamo and our articles. She's a dynamo, she really is, and her article is super cool too, So both Chuck and I give that one that thumbs up and strongly recommend it. And you can find that article how to Survive a plane crash. Chuck's written a whole slew of survival articles and you can find them all by typing some clever words into the search bar at how stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. 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Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know? From House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, welcome to the podcast. This is Stuff you Should Know. And I'm Josh Clark and that's Chuck Bryant, Right, Chuck. That's a very formal introduction. Josh, I like it said, I'd loosen up a little bit made you're good. Check you remember we're talking about like the worst way to die in a podcast several podcast back, and uh, I said, for me, the worst way to die would be a plane crash, right, because you're on your way down and you're fully aware of the whole time, probably of what's about to happen. I can't think of anything worse than dying in a plane crash with a bunch of strangers. Yeah, you know, you don't want to die with people you don't know. Um, okay. So one of the reasons I said that was because I've had a terrible experience on a plane and nothing really untoward happened, Like there wasn't a lot of turbulence or anything like that. Um, but I I know it the hard way that I'm actually afraid of flying. Most of the time. When I fly, it's too you know, if I fly at all, it's to Europe or to Mexico or something like that. Right, so it's a long flight, I'll take a callot of pin and you know, drink some Scotch and then that's it. I wake up and I'm where I'm supposed to be. It's like a time travel machine to you pretty much. Yeah, so, um, and it works like a champ right. Um. But the thing is that I'm never conscious or at the very least cognizant or you know, doing anything but drooling the whole way right. Well, on the way back actually from Mexico, we had to lay over in Miami. I had no pharmaceuticals and uh I didn't have I think it was a cash flight, cash bar flight. I didn't have any money. Yeah, what's the point. I just shelled out like half of my life savings for this flight from Miami to Atlanta. And you can't give me liquor for free, right right? All right? So anyway, this this perfect storm of horribleness transpires and I'm in the air and all the way from Miami to Atlanta. Um, I'm I'm just completely convinced over and over again, the plane's about to go down, right, And I was actually looking up how fear works, right, and I found out that when you have a fear response, there's two things going on. Number one is this real quick knee jerk reaction that alerts you to danger, and our old friend fighter flights and um um fight or flight response perks up. And then you've got a more thoughtful process that takes a little longer, that's really analyzing context and stuff like that. And then if it if it, if it concludes you're not in danger, it tells your your hypothalamus to settle down, be rational, right, and then you calm down. But this kept happening over and over and over again. So for three hours, it was like every twenty seconds I was cresting the hill of a roller coaster. It was one of the worst things that ever happened to me. So a lesson learned. As far as I'm concerned, I'll never travel. I'm prepared again. Um. But but it turns out from what I understand, that the chances of me actually going down in a plane, but this isn't These facts and figures don't make me feel any better at all. But rationally speaking, I have a very little chance of going out on a plane, don't yeah about you want another number? Are you speculating? No? No, no, I know that. You know I was setting you up right there. Yeah, that's a good one. UM. I appreciate that. Your chances of dying, I'm sorry, no, I'm dying. Your chances of even being involved than an airline crash, um are one in eleven million. Uh And when you compare that to your chances of actually been killed in a car, And this is the one you always hear airline versus car or one in five thousand. But for some reason, I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm not driving the plane, so I have no control over its a car. It's I can maybe steer my way out of it. You think, well, that's one of the big reasons. It's not me thinking this. It's you know, people have studied this, and the lack of control has a huge uh part at place, UM as well as the fact that UM negative bias. So a plane crash gets a lot a lot of coverage, you know, so it seems like they're dropping out of the sky with regularity because they don't you know cover the news. The news didn't cover car crashes like now, you're definitely not going to see that in the NBC Nightly News. That's true. I've got I've got another another way of looking at it. Um, with numbers. Do you know you would have to fly on an airline every day for thirty five thousand years to be guaranteed up to that you're going to be in a plane crash? That isn't to becoming evidence. That is an awesome, awesome staff. That one came from air disaster dot com and um, that is a site that I would never recommend anyone go to if you have a fear of flying, because you don't because you sin, well, yeah exactly. I like to fly and it doesn't freak me out at all. Actually I don't like to fly. I hate to fly, but has nothing to do do with fear of crashing. What is just the long process of it? Yeah, the process, and I hate that and being stuck on the plane next to people and uh, touching strangers and people are obnoxious and the smells and I just hate it. Man. I think you're at a club, rubber, how you don't like to touching strangers? No, all right, well, good to know you see a little by the little club rubber. I've never heard that. Oh, I'll explain it later, okay, um, so okay, well, all right, we understand that there's very little chance that you're going to get into a plane rack, but they still happen. It does happen. Some people have a much closer relationship with fate and coincidence and chance than others. So let's say one of our listeners finds himself for herself in a plane that's going down. There's some things that you may or may not want to do. And actually before you even board, when you're booking a tap you made, there's some stuff you want to take into consideration, right, very true? Well like what uh, Well, before we get to that real quick, people should know just because your plane crashes doesn't mean you'll die either, just so reassuring I know. Uh. In fact, between nineteen eighty and two thousand, there were five six crashes in the US and more than of them survived. That's crazy. Most of these, I have to say this, we're take off and landing crashes, but of the twenty six extreme crashes, and I think that means you're at thirty three thousand feet and then you go to zero feet. Uh, you have more than fifty chance of surviving that. Even I would lose my mind. Yeah, I would lose my mind as I was walking away from that, you would. So. Having said that, if you are on a plane and you're a fan of ours and you're going down, we feel very bad for you. But future you unless you're actually listening to this on a plane that's going down. If so, hats off to you. Right, you've really achieved the you know, I don't know what the other two things are, but near the other one. The first thing most people want to find out about is there the safest seat? Yeah? And is there? Well, it depends on who you ask. If you ask the f a A, their official stances, No, there's not the safest seat exactly. That's what I think is. They can't really say that because people be like, I'm not sitting there, exactly. I don't want to sit in anything but the safe seat. Exactly. This is a death seat. But people study this stuff like you wouldn't believe. In popular mechanics, Great Magazine did a study and over a thirty six year period, they studied data plane crashes, commercial jet crashes um in the United States, and passengers in the rear of a plane are in fact, by their data, more likely to survive than those in towards the front of the pretty significant. Yeah. Yeah, so I guess any of you guys out there here about a book plane tickets, look for the back of the plane. Look for the back of the plane. The people don't listen to this podcast die right. People like sitting up front though, because you get the d board is deep board? Is that a word? You get embarked? This embarked off the plane quicker, and no one likes standing in that long line or everyone down they also die, Which one is it? You know you have to hear bye bye b bye, like a few more times than the people in the front. But you're going to survive if the plane goes down. So I've got some tips for you though, if you're on a plane before the crash ever happens, there's a few things you can do to improve your chances. Yeah, you're ready. Uh, this is something Actually after I wrote this article, I started doing this stuff. Oh yeah, man, definitely. I mean, I don't I'm not a I don't believe in bad luck in jinxes, But I thought I was jinxed I wrote this, Yeah, I thought I'm the guy that wrote the article, and then I'm going to be the one, ironically that perishes, you know from So once you're on board, get to your seat, find the exit row. This is a no brainer. But here's a little trick. What you want to do is you want to count how many rows are between you and the exit row and submit that number in your head, even if you're hopped up on pharmaceuticals and scotch. So if you count eleven rows to the exit row, a lot of times you might be in the dark. You might be underwater, you know. Think about that. You can feel the seats and feel one, two, three, five up to eleven, and then you know you took a left or right and you're at your exit right. And don't be misled by you know, a detached arm. You know if you're if you're in the dark, know the difference between a detached arm and a plane seats right. I did not put that tip in the article. I should have. The crash position is changed over the years, and not a lot of people know this. The did you get an impression of why the crash position changed. Well, my hope is that it's to make it more likely that you'll survive. I doubt if I hope there weren't politics or money behind it or anything like that. But I think you used to put your head between your legs and cover your between your knees and cover your head. Now that's not true. What you're supposed to do is you're supposed to extend your arms, uh, put your hands, um, cross your hands over each other, and put them against the seat, the seat back in front of you, and then put your head against the back of your hands. So you got your arms stretched out and I'm pressed against seat in front of you and your head resting on the back of your hands. That's the new official crass position. Yeah. Now I can actually see the lobby of the in Flight Magazine Publishers Association having that changed. You know, you're going down like wow, like can get that for that cheap? I want to know who does the artwork on those things. It's awesome. It's always the same, and there's like there's probably one dude in Vermont that does all that artwork. For one for the in flight little brochure you get, Oh, the calm ist Hindu cows people. The graphics. I love that that drawing, but yeah, it's it's very Uh. Here's a little tip for you. Before you get on the plane. You should dress appropriately. And then that sounds silly. If you're going to Maui, you want to have on your Hawaiian shirt and your flip flops. But during after a plane crash, there's glass everywhere, there's jet fuel, there's fire, You're gonna want to be covered. So you should never wear open toad shoes. Um, you should wear long sleeves and long sleeve shirt as well. Yeah, it makes sense if you're smart. Many people want hear this advice though, because, like I said, they want to be comfy on you know, the transcontinental flights. Uh. If you if you have a family family, say you and your wife have like three kids, three or four kids, and you're getting on the plane, you want to divide the responsibility up between the parents because it's a lot harder for one like the father to try and wrangle four family members. Uh, and you might get separated. So Dad's in charge of little Timmy and Johnny, and mom's in charge of Sue and uh Jane. Yeah, and if you if you have a lazy spouse, you may want to reconsider flying as a family. It's a good idea. Everything maybe on your shoulders. Yeah, and uh, listen, and this is a big one. Listen to the pre flight instructions. And now that's typically I guess you're trying to get your scotch Um. I'm annoyed with the people on both sides of myself. But this is when you need to be listening, because all planes are different, and there actually are some variations and instruction depending on what kind of Yeah. I actually, yeah, I thought it was all the same. So it's a good advice now. And and if the oxygen mass drops, you know you're in trouble, put it on yourself first. And if you love your wife more than life itself, you may have an instinct to put it on her. But you have to save yourself first before you can save any of anounced is the general thinking. Yeah, so those are those are starwinistic that last save yourself, save yourself so you can save others. Right, Okay, well, Chuck, as you were saying there, there's a substantial percentage of people who are in serious crashes that have survived, right, and one of them, uh was one one specific one was made into a movie, One plane crash. Right, what was it called Survive Alive? Yes, there's some I've I think it's alive. Okay, the the Uruguayan rugby team. You want to tell them about that? I well thought you were okay, Well, actually he's your favorite there's your favorite story. It's a great story. Um, and it's a great movie to actually um this Uh, this Uruguayan soccer team probably should have known a rugby team. I'm sorry, Um, they probably shouldn't known. They were on a plane for Chili and uh they were in the Andes Mountains, which is like just the they should call those things the widow makers. There's alwaysh yeah. Um. And it was Friday October, which if there's a day to not fly, it's that day, Friday the thirteenth in October. That's a bad day. Yeah, sorry, sure, yeah, okay. So their plane goes down, right, there's forty five people on board. It's not just the rugby team, but there's there's some others. Um and uh, basically for I think seventy two days. Um, the survivors some of them slowly died off. I think twelve initially died in the crash, and then over the course of time, another ten died over the next seventy two days. They didn't have any food or anything, so they ended up very famously resorting to cannibalism, which before they were they were finally find Yeah, well, you know, I love canible ism um and uh, yeah, the movie was alive. We hear rumors that there may be a follow up documentary about it coming. They're unsubstantiated, but keep an eye out for it. I think there has been a previous documentary some point too. Yeah, well, they just had like some some reunion I believe what was the maybe reunion or something or reunion because a lot of these guys are still alive and they reunited for you know, I don't want to ever be around you people again. To her, right, you know, exactly all right? But okay, so what other what other things can you do to you know, maybe stay alive besides campbell is um unless you're forced to resort to it. Right, Well, let's say your plane is crashed and you're on the ground. The first ninety seconds is vital. The golden what they call that golden time, and uh, airlines are are responsible for getting everyone off in those ninety seconds. That's the goal for the airline industry. Uh. So that's what you really need to be concerned about. There's gonna be fire, potentially jet fuel, nasty stuff burning, So you want to get down low because the fumes from this stuff is more likely to kill you than being burnt. Sure. Yeah, so what are airplane and see covers made of. Yeah, exactly nothing. You want to put in your pipe and smoke, you know what I'm saying. Um, So, you know you've got all this nasty, toxic stuff in the air, so you want to get low, just like it to teach you at home, you know, stop dropping roll. Well I think it's if you're on fire. Yeah, but they teach you to get down to go under the smoke. The same principle here. Uh. If you do make it off the plane, which is the ideal scenario, you want to get the heck away from there because it could blow up. It could you know, any number of things could happen, So you want to get as far away from the plane as you can safely and get behind something. If there's something there, there's you know, a huge rock or a big tree. I mean, you just want to try and shield yourself in case there's a big explosion, and um, do not do not try and get your baggage off your carry on bags. It's good. What if you have your pet on board? H boy, you're asking the wrong guy. I would try and save my pet, but they say, no, matter what it is, leave it behind, it's not worth it. And uh man, I didn't. I wasn't anticipating that. Again, beer brush off the Luckily my pets don't fly, so I want to ever have to, uh to deal with that. They also say don't drink. I saw that and I was no, I just can't. Okay, well I can't normal right, Yeah, so that makes sense. I don't like to drink aboard a flight. It kind of I don't know. I don't like it so without the pressure, and maybe it's the expense and those little bottles. I just I don't get it to love those little bottles. Uh. They also say not to inflate your life fest until um you're outside the cabin, because yeah, I can restrict your movement, but you don't want when you're running out of a plane on fire. No, you don't want to be at the exit and then your life fest gets hung on the seat before the explosion. And I think, Uh, that's about all the tips I have for you. You know, I do have one more thing, chuck. Um. People who survived plane crashes actually tend to um to uh score better here on emotional quotient tests things like post traumatic symptoms than people who have not been in plane crashes. They actually scored significantly higher. Um. There was a old Dominion University study of fifteen crash survivors across the United States, and um, these people just basically had a more positive outlook on life and didn't show the signs of stress like these people who who served as the control control group flew I think five times a year or more, and who had never been in a plane crash. Um, yeah, it makes sense. They theorized that it was because they've been through this huge ordeal, and um, they kind of learned not to sweat the small stuff. Seriously, it makes sense, doesn't it. Um. And people again who had shown control, who were in control, like you you were suggesting, they actually hadn't the highest score of all if they thought of themselves of having stayed in control or maybe help somebody off the plane. Apparently, you just cannot have a better outlook on life than if you've helped someone off a burning plane when you survived a plane crash. Yes, let's seek it out. I wish I knew what that feeling. Kind of felt like yeah, kind of but at the same time kind of like kind of not yeah exactly. Uh, there's just one more quickie, Josh. And people never let these listeners go. I would be remiss if I didn't say that. Um, try to stay calm. That's the number one thing you can do because panic. Uh people can't even unbuckle their seatbelt many times because they're in such a state of panic. And uh, you know, stay calm. If you can, Chuck, you may have just saved some lives. Wow, you should feel good about yourself. Well, you know, if you have any plane crash survivors that survived because of my advice, please let me know. And I might feel like that guy that saved the person from the burning Yeah, talk about a positive outlook online. And before we let you go, let us just give you a little peek at what Chuck and I think is the coolest article on the site. It's called do We really get wise or with age. It is by our colleague writer Molly Edmonds. It's just a dynamo and our articles. She's a dynamo, she really is, and her article is super cool too, So both Chuck and I give that one that thumbs up and strongly recommend it. And you can find that article how to Survive a plane crash. Chuck's written a whole slew of survival articles and you can find them all by typing some clever words into the search bar at how stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. 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