ON the plane?
In the airport lounge, watching the fireball.
I figure it doesn’t really matter. My preferred seats are just aft of the wing, so I can watch the control surfaces move.
I recall reading somewhere that the safest seats in larger planes are probably the aft jump seats (cabin crew seats), and they won’t let passengers sit in those anyways.
Great post. Yeah, I’m not convinced about the statistical validity of this study either.
I just wanted to see if reports like this have an impact on the general population. I now realize that the SDMB is not “general population” because apparently 2 backseaters now want to go sit in the front :eek: 
When I fly, unless the plane is completely booked and there are people on standby, I do my best to be the absolute last person to board the plane (which isn’t hard, all you have to do is wait for the final boarding call.)
This way, I get my choice of seats.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been able to get a complete aisle to myself, allowing me to stretch my legs on the other empty seats if need be.
Why isn’t the middle an option? It’s the strongest part of the fuselage (that is, over the wings).
When was this an article in Popular Mechanics? Mary Roach covered this factoid in the book Stiff, so I figure it was known by 2003.
So you don’t end up sitting in your assigned seat? I only have a minor issue with that, but given as this is a thread about air safety, I figure I’ll mention it; if you aren’t sitting in the place assigned to you on the passenger manifest, in the event of a fatal accident it makes it harder to find and identify your body and can skew safety and survivability studies. Sure, it’s improbable, but it’s something to consider. Advising your flight attendant(s) of where you should be lets them at least update the onboard copy of the manifest, should it be found.
On most planes - but of more concern on small planes - that aren’t full, passengers are also placed according to weight and balance charts to ensure the centre of gravity is within the range it should be. Of course, in this situation, you’d probably be told not to change seats!
The middle is structurally very strong, but also contains a massive amount of flammable fuel. The fuel tanks are in the wings and in a centre tank at the bottom of the fuselage between the wings (on most planes). In the even of a post-impact fire (which happen rather often) the middle is decidedly less safe.
Exit row. I don’t care if I survive the crash I just want to die comfortably.
Naw, I’m in a plane not a train.
In the event that the plane crashes and blows up, I suspect it won’t matter which seat you’re in.
I like to sit in an over wing exit row. It gives me some extra leg room and I take the safety aspect seriously. I figure that way at least one person in the row will know how to get out.
I don’t really care about surviving a catastrophic crash because I probably won’t, but when it comes to landing accidents, runway over-runs, ditchings and so on, I want to be as close to an exit as possible.
My favourite seating is in an exit row with no one in the middle seat. Leg room, shoulder room, and a spare tray table to put my empty meal tray and drinks.
This is fine if you don’t need to put your carry-on luggage in the overhead compartment (as they’re usually full by the time the last passengers board) and you don’t mind sitting in the middle seat (as everyone else goes for the window and aisle seats). I prefer to board early, so I can put my carry-on bag in an overhead compartment just above my seat, or just in front of my seat, and to get an aisle seat when possible.
I like to sit just behind the wings or over them, it gives me some sort of point of reference when I look out over the clouds below.
I’d heard too it was the strongest point on the fuselage, that and on the budget airline trips I’ve taken, on that small a plane there are emergency exits located just there.
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My carryon is always small enough to fit under the seat in front of me.
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As far as I can tell, the vast, vast majority of passengers sit in their ticketed seat. If they tried to maximize their comfort (as I do), then I wouldn’t have empty rows to sit in.
That’s because you’re not permitted to be in a seat other than your ticketed one for take-off. Weight and balance is calculated on a particular seating arrangement and the aircraft take-off trim setting is set based on this as well.
You must always travel at odd times when few people are flying. Every time I’ve flown most of the seats are occupied. If I did as you do and waited until the last minute to board, the odds are that my ticketed seat would be one of the few, if not the only, seat available. I think I’ve only been on two flights where there were so many empty seats that the passengers could sit anywhere they wanted, and IIRC they were both red-eye flights out of Vegas.
Precisely. There’s nothing to lose. If “my” seat is the best available, it’ll still be available. If it’s not, there I’ll be.
If this is the case, then why don’t the people in charge of the plane move me? As far as I can tell in the dozens and dozens of flights I’m on every year there is no checking of seat assignments or weight distribution except in small jets (as previously mentioned).
Because they have no way of telling you’re not in your assigned seat unless they check all of the tickets and that would be too time consuming. Normally if someone sits in the wrong seat it becomes apparent when the rightful seat owner turns up. Because you’re waiting to board last this doesn’t happen to you, and when one person does it, it doesn’t matter, but if everyone did it it would be not so good. Obviously it won’t mater for trim in a full aeroplane because the weight distribution will be similar regardless of who is sitting where. On an aeroplane with more empty seats there’s more room for problems if, for example, everyone decided to sit at the back because they thought it was safer. You’re kind of relying on everyone else doing the right thing so that you can do the wrong thing and be more comfortable.