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Rode in a military plane across the country. Seated backwards. VERY "unusual" feeling which made me nauseous. Cant offer a scientific explanation, and have no idea about crash survivability, but as for "comfort", I would say "no".
I saw the thread title and thought the same exact thing. I don't think sitting in any direction is going to help while your a$$ is being dropped from 30,000 feet up in the sky at a speed of 500+ miles per hour. I could be wrong on the physics behind that though
If a passenger weighs say 72kg and the aircraft is travelling at 500 mph and then comes to a sudden stop in a distance of less than a meter, the impact force on the body will be 669 tons.
Ain't gonna make much difference which way you're facing if that happens.
Really old NYC subway cars had seats facing on the sides, front and rear. The rear facing seats were always the last to have someone sit on them. People don't like facing the opposite direction they are traveling.
I get dizzy facing backwards even on trains because the scenery moves the “wrong” way. I suspect it is less of factor on a plane because there is less to see.
Really old NYC subway cars had seats facing on the sides, front and rear. The rear facing seats were always the last to have someone sit on them. People don't like facing the opposite direction they are traveling.
They still have those seats on the Japanese-made R68 subway cars on NYC subway. I didn't notice anybody not wanting to sit on the rear facing seats as opposed to front facing. I am guessing the nausea factor is not as high on a slow-moving train.
They still have those seats on the Japanese-made R68 subway cars on NYC subway. I didn't notice anybody not wanting to sit on the rear facing seats as opposed to front facing. I am guessing the nausea factor is not as high on a slow-moving train.
They have seats like that on most subway systems in the U.S. (The longitudinal seats on most NYC subway cars are actually an anomaly in American practice.) I commuted on the Baltimore subway for six years, and I can tell you that the backwards seats were always the last to be chosen. As was stated before, most people simply don't like facing backwards.
I remember in the 70's when I flew on British Airways the seats were backward. At least on the Trident jets. I had never seen seats set up that way on a plane before. I can't say I liked the feeling. When I travel on the Commuter Rail in Massachusetts, it seems passengers are generally seated backward. I don't like sitting backwards on a train either. I just don't think most people do, and I can understand why some people will become sick.
As far as safety. It would depend on the type of crash. Such as a crash landing where there isn't an explosion, that consumes the plane in fire. Then I think some life's could be saved by the seats facing backward.
As a friend of mine said when I went to sit in a rear-facing seat on the DC Metro, "If I sit facing the wrong way, I'll puke."
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