Originally Posted by
Heyden
… percentage odds on the door or a plug blowing out while I'm in the seat are infinitesimal. The odds on me having more legroom sitting in an exit row are 100 percent.
Originally Posted by
Herb687
… it's slightly less infinitesimal that you might wind up in a burning aircraft on the ground. Knowing that no one is between me and the emergency exit is peace of mind. The number of people killed by doors blowing out or peeling off (UA811) or shrapnel from uncontained engine failures penetrating the fuselage is dwarfed by the number of people who survived quick emergency evacuations of burning aircraft.
Originally Posted by
Mwenenzi
Exit rows do not have a bolted in plug door. (defeats the purpose of exit doors) Been millions of (safe unaffected) flights with people sitting beside an exit row emergency door.
Originally Posted by
downinit
… exit doors are designed so that the cabin pressure forces them to stay closed, so they cannot possibly "blow out." The plugs were designed with cost savings in mind, … you are exponentially more likely to be involved in an accident on the way to/from the airport than on an actual plane.
(ER doc & Navy Flight Surgeon - retired) All excellent points. Additionally, seats in front of exit row can NOT recline into exit row space.
Originally Posted by
pinniped
No worry at all about safety. But I don't particularly like exit row window seats. They are often cold, sometimes narrow, sometimes have less leg space because of the door, and sometimes missing an armrest. Exit row aisle? Zero hesitancy booking that at all.
Aisle seat only as a far distant second choice; too many shoulder bruises and (backpack) face slaps and worry about spilled coffee as a flight attendant hands it to the
dufus person sitting in the middle or window seat and too many people climbing over. (Far more comfortable to be the (occasional) climber than the climbee 😊.)
The debate as to the safest seat (location) on an airplane is never ending, some crashes the front is safest, some crashes back is safest, some the middle. However, what’s not debatable is that the vast majority of crash survivors get out of the wreck THEMSELVES without assistance, few survivors have been pulled or carried out by another person (passenger OR bystander OR first responder). Thus, proximity to an exit (emergency or otherwise) is important.
Additionally, many (aircraft) interior materials produce toxic fumes when burning, another reason to get out ASAP.
Also, slightly lower possibility of a POS (person of size) in the adjacent seat spilling into exit row seat space. Unfortunately many flight attendants ignore the fact that most obese people are not able to quickly get up (or out) from an airplane seat and thus marginally (if at all) able to assist and would instead become obstacles.
Originally Posted by
jonu
… rethinking exit rows … seat-of-choice, … exit row window …
Only for a millisecond, it’s still far and away the safest and most comfortable economy seat on almost every commercial airplane.