After the crash landing of Asiana Flight 214, it seemed incredible that 304 of 307 people on board survived. But that's in line with numbers from the National Transportation Safety Board, which show that 95% of passengers involved in accidents on US carriers between 1983 and 2000 survived.
A little misleading. Most of these are botched LANDINGS OR TAKEOFFS, where the plane is still relatively close to the ground. A failure from cruising altitude or with several hundred feet of altitude is almost impossible to survive, even over water.
Altitude is your friend and allows more time to recover from mishaps. Landings and takeoffs still involve altitudes and speeds that are potentially lethal.
Heh, y’think? :’) When a plane comes apart at a few hundred miles an hour, erstwhile passengers die from shock due to having all their clothing torn off instantly and depressurization. Now, if they happen to be expert divers and are over the ocean, that’s a different story, although the end result is the same.