Originally Posted by
CKBA
Oh my... "lots of people fly economy" - the majority of people travel economy! Although the numbers vary greatly depending on how you cut it, per plane this is anywhere from about 58% (789) to 100% (321) (for WT/ET only) - and I suspect overall it's probably close to 80%. I would also note that the survival rate is probably as good as those travelling up front (but would be interested to know if any studies have been done!).
There have been studies of the safest seats on planes for various types of crashes.
Beyond this, the demographics and health status of coach versus premium cabin passengers are surely distributed differently. For example, think of the obese passengers who purchase something above coach due to their size. They're presumably more likely to die from various causes but the rates of death during flight might be so low as to be statistically insignificant.