I ran across two how-to lists this morning: How to survive a plane crash and how to survive a long fall. The former list is actually fairly practical. The latter one is interesting and possibly useful, but under an even more challenging scenario. Here’s what I gleaned from both articles:

Surviving a plane crash:

• Wear tennis shoes and long pants.
• Sit on an aisle over the wing.
• Pay attention to the preflight safety speech.
• Tighten my seat belt.
• Brace for the impact.
• Keep calm as much as you can.
• Use a cloth to protect yourself from smoke.
• Get as far away from the plane as possible after the crash.

Surviving a long fall:

• Bend your knees.
• Land feet-first, preferably on the balls of your feet.
• Relax as much as possible.
• Cover your head.

I found other facts in these articles interesting, too. For instance, the odds of dying in a commercial plane crash are 11 million to one. As many as 90 percent of crashes have survivors. People have survived falls from several thousand feet, but falls from even 20 to 30 feet are frequently fatal. I’m not sure how much of this information would have helped the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, but it does make for an interesting read.