Unbreakable? Small child sole survivor in Libya Plane Crash

[dmr727]

Afriqiyah Airways lost an Airbus 330 in Libya, and apparently only a Dutch child lived through it.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/05/12/libya.planecrash/

 

[eawmp1]

Amazing he survived...hope he recovers from his physical and psychological wounds soon.

My heart goes out to families of the dead.

 

[AppleMatt]

I don't think it's the case here, but I've heard that children come off better in car crashes because they don't tense up the moment before impact like an adult would.

Stay floppy.

AppleMatt

 

[theITGuy]

Crazy story thanks for posting it...

-J.-

 

[niuniu]

I don't think it's the case here, but I've heard that children come off better in car crashes because they don't tense up the moment before impact like an adult would.

Stay floppy.

AppleMatt

Yeah like that guy who's parachute didn't open. He survival largely attributed to him fainting and going loose.

This kid is a small miracle. What a terrible tragedy the crash is. So many plane crashes the past couple of years..

 

[emiljan]

Wow. Crazy story.

This is similar to Northwest Airlines Flight 255 which crashed at Detroit Metro Airport in 1987. The only survivor of that crash was also a child, i believe a 4 year old girl.

 

[Gregg2]

The media have been recounting similar stories (such as the 4 year old in Detroit) in reports about this latest one. I first heard that the kid was 8, then he was 10, now today, he's 9 years old. Maybe they have it right now. As they said, he's one lucky kid, if you can describe one who was just orphaned that way. His uncle is at his side by now, having flown to Tripoli from the Netherlands.

 

[7031]

So many plane crashes the past couple of years..

Yeah it's quite mad really. Look at the aviation incidents page on Wikipedia and you notice how in the last 10 years there's been far more plane crashes. Saying that, this could easily be because air travel is becoming more widely used, but I can't really be sure.

 

[Kamera RAWr]

Yeah it's quite mad really. Look at the aviation incidents page on Wikipedia and you notice how in the last 10 years there's been far more plane crashes. Saying that, this could easily be because air travel is becoming more widely used, but I can't really be sure.

I'd definitely like some people, perhaps pilots, with any ideas about that to chime in

 

[dmr727]

I'd definitely like some people, perhaps pilots, with any ideas about that to chime in

It's a complex subject, and I'm certainly no expert, but as I understand it things are trending towards being safer. With accidents being as relatively few as they are, all it takes is an accident or two to skew the short term statistics, even if there's no underlying cause.

I do feel the airplanes themselves are getting safer with each generation, but I'm not sure that I'm completely happy with the direction that pilot training - and really the whole professional pilot philosophy at large - is going (at least in the States). That said, I don't have any data to suggest that it's negatively affecting safety either.

 

[Tomorrow]

Back in the 80's there was an airliner that crashed near Detroit, the sole survivor was a little girl. And don't forget just a few years ago a small commercial jet crashed on takeoff, and only the co-pilot survived.

Look at the aviation incidents page on Wikipedia and you notice how in the last 10 years there's been far more plane crashes. Saying that, this could easily be because air travel is becoming more widely used, but I can't really be sure.

I think in the past 10 years more plane crashes are being investigated, or more being published to Wikipedia because they're fresher in people's minds; I don't know that there are more crashes.

There's an interesting bit of data at www.airdaster.com. Check it out.