Recently read Ben Sherwood’s new book THE SURVIVORS CLUB: THE SECRETS AND SCIENCE THAT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE. A lot of interesting tidbits and facts in there so I’m sure I can wring a few more future entries from it. But today, I want to focus on the section of the book that talks about surviving plane crashes because I’m all about sharing useful tips with you, our readers, that could save your life.

Now the reality is that plane crashes are extremely rare. You might not know that from the media since it feels like plane crashes are being reported constantly—witness headline grabbers like the crash of the US Airways jetliner into the Hudson, the Air France jet plummeting into the Atlantic and the commuter plane that crashed in New York due to ice buildup. A study out of MIT found that front page news coverage of plane crashes appeared 60 times more than AIDS/HIV stories, 1500 times more than auto accidents and 6000 times more than cancer stories, the second leading killer in America.

But what are the odds you’ll actually perish in a plane crash? In aviation, your chances of dying on a flight is known as Q, which represents the death risk per randomly chosen flight. Q is one in sixty million. That means you have a one in sixty million chance of dying on a plane. Compare that with the odds of dying in a car crash which is one in nine million. Or the odds of winning the California Super Lotto Jackpot (1 in 18 million) or of dying from flesh-eating bacteria (1 in 1 million) or being killed by a terrorist while traveling abroad (1 in 650,000) or getting cancer from eating one peanut butter sandwich every day (1 in 5,000).

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, even if you end up in plane crash, your survival rate is 95.7 percent. Even in the worst accidents involving fire, injuries or substantial damage, the survival rate is still 76.6 percent. That’s not too bad.

In fact, 40 percent of fatalities in plane crashes are survivable. If passengers did not put themselves at greater risk by doing things like drinking, taking off shoes or not paying attention during a flight, their chances of survival would increase substantially. Most people also experience negative panic in an emergency—they freeze. They don’t know how to respond, they wait for help and they die. More on this later, but if you are in a plane crash, remember this—YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN.

Have you wondered why when you step onto a plane, the flight attendants are there to smile and greet you? They’re not just being friendly, they’re profiling the passengers. Yes, they’re looking for suspicious behavior, but their main objective is to identify ABPs (able bodied passengers). In an emergency, the ABPs are the ones the cabin crew can call for help—they’re typically solo travelers, alert, healthy, fit. When the attendants perform the safety demonstration before take-off, they’re checking to see who is paying attention. They need to know who shows an active interest in surviving a plane crash. Statistically, 61 percent of flyers don’t pay attention to the safety demonstrations. The worst offenders are frequent flyers who think they know the drill. Guess who’s most likely to die?

It should be obvious why it’s important to be aware of the safety precautions, but here’s another fun statistic–you have on average only 90 seconds to get out of a plane after it crashes. In 90 seconds, the cabin will turn into an inferno. Forty-five percent of flight attendants in survivable plane crashes are incapacitated so that means half the time after a crash—YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN.

Finally, there’s something known as the “Plus Three/Minus Eight” concept. The “plus three” refers to the first three minutes of a flight (the take-off), the “minus eight” the last eight (the landing). This is the prime time for an emergency—80 percent of plane crashes happen in these eleven minutes. Take-off and landing is not the time to be drunk, sleeping or listening to your iPod. During these times, you should be especially alert and ready to run for your lives.

So if you happen to be on a plane that crashes, what do you need to do to increase your chances of survival? All the experts agree that survival comes down to one question: how committed are you? Your mind-set is the key—mental fitness is more important than physical fitness. It’s usually not the crash that kills people, it’s what happens after—the fire and evacuation. The key is to be relaxed, not to freeze and act.

On a practical level, wear solid shoes, don’t wear stockings or synthetic fibers that can melt into your skin, no shorts or skirts (your body should be covered to protect you from fire). Don’t try to grab your carry-on luggage after a crash. Remember you only have 90 seconds to get out—that new $2,000 laptop you just bought is not worth your life.

And despite what some studies say, there is no seat that is the safest because planes crash and hit the ground or water at different angles that cannot be predicted. But there is the five seat rule. A study by Professor Ed Galea of the University of Greenwich in London discovered survivors usually move an average of five rows before escaping a burning aircraft so it doesn’t matter where on a plane you sit as long as you are no more than five rows from an exit. Passengers in aisle seats also have a 64 percent chance of survival as opposed to 58 percent for those with window seats.

Hopefully no one reading this will ever find themselves needing to actually use this information. But if you do, hope this helps.