Knickam

Recently had a flight to Heathrow on an A319.
Unfortunately we lost our exit row seats due to a flight cancellation and ended up in row 22 on the rebooked flight.
Being 6'4'' these seats are a tight squeeze for me with my knees stuck against the seats in front.

So during the safety briefing it shows the brace position as leaning forward with your head just above your knees.

Out of interest I leaned forward and my forehead was hitting the lip of the upper seat pocket preventing me from leaning any further forward. This also left the rear of my head higher than the seat i was leaning against.

Interested what peoples views are regarding this brace position I would have to take in an emergency?

WorldLux

I think that there are different brace positions depending on your seat. In J/F and bulkhead/exit row Y, you are supposed to place your head above your knees and cover your neck with your hands, whereas in a standard Y row you should place your head against the back of the seat in front and cover your neck/head with your arms.

Here's for instance the BA Concorde safety card showing the different positions.

T8191

I'm only 6'0", and I have tried to adopt the 'approved position' in a standard BA CE seat. I can't achieve it either.

Those in EXIT rows have better options.

PHLGovFlyer

Given the geometric restrictions you mention, and at 6'5" with a relatively long torso, I pretty much assume I'll be decapitated in the event of an airplane crash. YMMV

flatlander

The Concorde briefing card actually admits that the seat pitch may be less than the upper body length of the passenger. Very few modern safety briefings address this point; BA's safety briefing video portrays some fantasy wonderland where everyone has Club-like seat pitch (the new one's no better).

I continue to remain unclear how to brace myself in almost any economy seat, based on the briefing and documents provided, on most airlines.

I am assuming that since the aim of bracing oneself is to avoid flying forward into things with a sudden impact, that leaning against the seat in front is a reasonable thing to do, and a very few briefing cards I've read do show this.

Boten

They do say that if you are unclear of anything from the safety briefing then you should ask a member of cabin crew (and not flyertalk)

sbm12

Forehead against the seatback in front with hands behind/across the back of your head, holding it in place.

The goal is to limit the distance between your head and the hard impact of the seat in front of you. They're designed so that at 16G you shouldn't get cut too badly but that's not going to stop the bruising or concussion. Limiting the distance your head swings free before impact will reduce the risk and severity of those injuries.

tinkicker

And the hands on the back of the head to protect against stuff moving forward from behind, and don't interlock your fingers. That way you may have one good hand to undo your seatbelt.

This of course varies from the US position which is to form a pillow with your arms and lean your head against that. Unfortunately recent studies (2015 by the FAA) have shown that with the latest Y seats the US position results in a much worse injury risk.

(For the technically minded seats broadly sit in three types: Fixed-back, Folding-backs and energy attenuating folding-back (EA-FB). Anything large built after about 2009 will have the EA-FB and a lot of post 1988 ish build and retrofit stuff will be to that standard.)

It seams with the arms as a pillow they push the EA-FB seat back away as the aircraft slows (at 17G in the tests) and thus the head can flail forward and hit the seat unrestrained.

The suggestion is that (and it's a US study looking at the US position) the brace position changes to forehead on seat in-front and hands by your side. However, the study was not looking at debris throw so I'd stick with the "British" methodology for now.

Also worry about your leg position as broken femurs makes it tricky to run away. Feet firmly on the floor. If you have super short legs and can't touch the floor when seated, consider big shoes!

Other trivia: when told to brace also make sure the tray table is properly locked in position as the tests show it really really hurts if it deploys and gets you in the neck as you're flailing forward.

The brace position is 'designed' to give the best benefit to the most people. If you're outside the "normal" range then er ... sorry? Take comfort that your chances of being involved in anything requiring a 16G deceleration are tiny.

Ldnn1

Any idea how many (if any) emergency landings there have been in the past say 20 years where the brace position has been used and made a noticeable difference to number of injuries/fatalities?

Globaliser

And feet slightly aft of the knees?

Waterhorse

That is an unknowable thing. It's like asking if an inoculation saves you from an infection. What we do know is that the brace position if held throughout an incident will significantly reduce the number of injuries

Legs aft of the knees is important if facing forward. It creates a biomechanical lock which will help prevent your lower limbs shooting forward in a rapid deceleration. I think this came in after either KegworthorManchester where there were significant numbers of lower leg fractures.

tinkicker

They looked at 4 foot positions: Forward, Vertical, Aft and suspended (short legs)

Aft was described as: And the result:

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.

My guess would be not very many at all. The Hudson incident is one that springs to mind.

Waterhorse

Why is that important?

Globaliser

Quite a number, I would think. Spend a couple of hours reading the Aviation Herald - it's pretty illuminating. If you want to home in on this aspect, set the filters to that you're only reading about Crashes and Accidents (in that site's categorisation).