Originally Posted by Helena Handbaskets

I can appreciate the "nobody knows how they'll react" factor. Certainly I'd like to think that even as a passenger I would be cool even in the face of a certain crash, too, but I know there's no way I could predict my behavior with confidence. On the other hand, though, my impression is that pilots do routinely maintain control of their professionalism in such instances. I admit I don't fully know if my impression is supported by the facts, but if the impression is correct, then surely it's just a matter of training to be able to rely on a cool reaction from the trained person in most cases. Of course that would cost money...