Originally Posted by
Ldnn1
What I really meant was, how many emergency landings - where the brace instruction will have been given - have there actually been which were violent enough to result in at least some minor injury and/or fatalities but not entire plane fatalities?
In other words, how many times might it have made a difference.
It's a great question and one that I wish I could answer immediately. However, I'd need to do a bit of digging to try to give an acceptably accurate answer and that's probably a back in the office thing.
But for now:
Anecdote isn't evidence but in the 1970s there were three relatively small 'no warning' accidents where people who were in a quasi brace position received only minor injuries while all others were killed or seriously injured. The classic being a 1976 accident where one pax was bent double being airsick survived with minor injuries and the three pax sat around him received fatal head injuries. This cluster was part of the inspiration for brace position research in the US.
another resource for those interested would be the database run by Ray Cherry assoc for the FAA and CAA
cabin safety database unfortunately it's not completely up to date.