World's most experienced pilot shares truth about why we use brace position on planes
If you have ever had the misfortune to be on a plane that's crashing, you'll probably be asked to adopt what you'd recognise as the brace position.
You'll have seen it from disaster movies or likely picked it up from some other facet of pop culture, but the big question has got to be: Why do we use the brace position?
Thankfully, LADbible managed to have a chat with Nick Eades, the world's most experienced 747 pilot, who told us all about the reason people do it.
For those not in the know the brace position has you bend down in your seat and put your hands over your head before the moment of impact.
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It's the position you'd be told to take if aboard a crashing plane and Eades explained just why passengers are asked to strike this particular pose.
"What you're trying to do is to stop people breaking their necks in a big impact," he explained to LADbible on the purpose of the brace position.
"You're just trying to get the body into a position that's going to suffer least damage."
"It's like whiplash - you're trying to avoid that sudden movement of the head, which can result in serious injury, if not death."
The experienced pilot dismissed the rumours that the position is actually supposed to kill passengers quickly in the event of a crash so they don't feel pain.
Some have suggested that the brace position is supposed to kill you in the impact but preserve dental records so the bodies are easier to identify once people discover the wreckage.
However, that's all a load of baloney according to Eades, who said the position was designed to save lives.
Despite this, he did say that airline staff would no longer tell their passengers to brace and would instead stick to clearer instructions instead of a phrase some might not know about.
He said: "I've had a couple where we had problems with the landing gear, and the cabin crew shout to all the passengers, 'Brace, brace!'
"Now, if you think about it, I would say at least half - probably three-quarters - of passengers on the aeroplane don't speak English as a first language. And if you think about it, what does 'brace' mean?"
"It took a long time for the aviation world to realise if you're suddenly thrown into an emergency situation and people start shouting 'brace' at you, you might think, 'What the hell do they mean?'"
"The brace position is going to become redundant, so cabin crew won't shout 'brace' at you anymore. They'll say, 'Head down, hands over your head. Head down, hands over your head.'"
"At least that gives somebody in probably the most stressful position they'll ever be in in their lives something to do."
Joe Harker