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Tik Toks I Watch Instead Of Doing Homework

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Chapter 19

1) opened his survival pack and found a lot of good resources

2) started to cook food for himself

3) was found and rescued

Epilogue

1) pilot was a fur buyer drawn by emergency transmitter

2) Brian lost 17% of bady weight, only gained 6% back

3) has still never told his dad about "the secret"

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Chapter 18

1) Brian found out that the aluminum on the plane gave in very easily with a few blows.

2) Brian dropped the hatchet in the water and had to dive in to get it.

3) Brian got the survival kit and got out of the plane safely.

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Chapter 17

1) Brian sees the tail of the plane and when he starts thinking, he remembers the survival pack might still be there

2) Brian makes a raft with logs, and weaves the limbs so the raft will hold together

3) When Brian gets to the plane, he sees there is no way for him to get in.

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Chapter 16

1) He shot a bird with a bow and arrow.

2) He saw a cow and it attacked him.

3) A tornado came in the middle of the night, it took everything away.

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Chapter 14

1) A skunk found the eggs that Brian had buried and wasn't even afraid of the fire or Brian. Brian threw sand at the skunk to hopefully scare it away.

2) Brian had to start hiding the food up high because he knew animals would be able to get it if it was buried or near the ground.

***3) Brian was thinking about how he only had berries and fish to eat although the fish weren't something he could store. He then realized he could trap the fish in a gate weave. An hour or so he had a lot of fish in the trap.

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Chapter 13 and Chapter 15

Chapter 13

1) Brian was going crazy and had forgotten to eat and had let the fire go out.

2) Brian started cutting himself and hoping he could die.

3) Brian learned he had to aim low, because the light refracts through water, if he wanted to get fish for food.

Chapter 15

1) Brian finds out he could kill a rabbit or foolbird if he gets the right tools.

2) Brian learns that he could train his eyes to see the shape of the foolbirds.

3) Brian killed a foolbird and got his first meat of being stranded at the lake

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Chapter 12

1) Brian tried to catch fish by using a spear but it didn't work.

2) He realized that the water refraction meant he would have to aim lower.

***3) He caught many fish and went and ate them.

4) He saw a rescue plane and tried to signal it but they didn't see him and turned around.

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Chapter 11

***1) Brian realizes that he has changed both mentally and physically

2) Brian thinks and realizes he could make a spear to catch fish

3) Brian has a signal fire ready and thinks about how he will light a limb and light it

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Chapter 6

1) Brian had a flashback of him and Terry about the secret.

2) He was looking for food and found berries on a tree that kind of looked like grapes and he ate so many of them that he got sick.

***3) He found a cave good for a shelter.

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Chapter 5 and Chapter 10

1) Brian had to calm himself when he starts to worry himself.

***2) He remembers the plane jerked to the right when the pilot had the heart attack.

3) Brian thinks about how long it will take somebody to find him.

Chapter 10

***1) Brian realizes he now has the resources to make a smoke signal

2) Brian hears something going into the water

3)Brian found turtle eggs to eat, and had to eat them raw

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Chapter 7 and Chapter 9

Chapter 7

1) The gut cherries and the pits made Brian sick, telling him they weren't a good food source.

***2) Brian finds the raspberries, which gives him a good food source to live off of for a while.

3) Brian got more courage because he realized the animals wouldn't harm him if he didn't mess with them.

Chapter 9

***1) Brian got the resources for fire and worked for a while until a fire finally sparked.

2) Brian worked hard through the day, cutting fire wood to keep the fire going, because he knew it was key to survival.

3) The fire guarded him from animals and bugs.

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Chapter 8

***1) While Brian was sleeping a porcupine came in and poked him with his spikes.

2) Brian threw the hatchet, missed and hit the wall and made sparks.

3) Brian had a dream about people telling him to make a fire with his hatchet.

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Chapters 1

1) Brian's parents got divorced and Brian is going to visit his dad in Canada.

2) His mom is keeping a secret from his father and cheating on him.

3) His mom gives him a hatchet before he leaves to use in the wilderness

***4) The pilot has a heart attack and dies leaving Brian to fly and find a place to land the plane by himself.

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Chapters 2

1) Brian tried to use the radio to contact someone to come help him but he did not know his flight number so they could not help him.

2) Brian decided how he would crash/land the plane. He was going to try and find a lake that he could land in.

***3) The plane ran out of fuel and it started falling.

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Chapters 3

***1) Brian thought he wouldn't survive because he didn't have a safe spot to land, but then he found the L-shaped lake.

2) He came in too short and hit trees, causing the plane to twist and flip and get torn apart.

3) As the plane got destroyed, he was stuck inside and he got bruised and injured.

4) He reached around, trying to find the seat belt buckle and finally got it, then tried to get out, but fainted

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Chapters 4

1) Page 31-32- The secret. His mom cheated on his dad, when Brian was with his friend Terry.

*****2) Page 32-34- Brian woke up screaming, he had somehow pulled himself out of the lake onto the side of the lake. All around him were trees, mosquitoes, and water

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Two men spent three days in the Alaska wilderness, living on water, a pack of canned salmon and some trail mix after surviving a plane crash that they managed to catch on camera.

Larry Minton, 65, of Wilkesboro, N.C., travelled to Alaska last week for a moose hunt. He was in a small plane with Patrick Williams, 53, when they experienced engine failure. Minton's camera was rolling as the plane began to descend.

"I knew that we'd be going down," Minton told "Good Morning America." "The only thing I just said to the good Lord was, 'Oh, Lord, give us a safe landing.' And He did.'"

The pilot was able to land on the soft ground, but the plane flipped over. Uninjured, the two men were able to get out of the wreckage.

After a day and a half at the crash site with no rescuers in sight, they set off for a town 12 miles away.

"It's like hunting a needle in a haystack," Minton said.

The two men were armed with a battery-powered GPS and their only food was a pack of canned salmon and some trail mix.

"We'd drink all the water we could and then take a pint with us," Minton said.

After three days of walking and being attacked by nasty bugs as they slept, they were spotted in a clearing by Alaska state troopers.

"Praise the Lord that our prayers were answered," Minton's son Matthew said.

But Larry Minton isn't letting the Alaskan misadventure put a damper on future trips. He has already surprised his family by telling them he is planning his next hunting trip to New Mexico.

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Two Survive Plane Crash in Alaska Wilderness

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Two men spent three days in the Alaska wilderness, living on water, a pack of canned salmon and some trail mix after surviving a plane crash that they managed to catch on camera. Larry Minton, 65, of Wilkesboro, N.C., travelled to Alaska last week for a moose hunt.

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They are doing everything they can to make the 7-year-old feel safe and loved -- a simple but critical act that mental health experts say can help the child begin grappling with being the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed her parents, sister and cousin.

Family members will raise Sailor, and money from a family-sanctioned online fund will help, said Gutzler family spokesman Kent Plotner, an attorney who personally knows the family. But out of concern for the girl's healing, Plotner said there will be no more details released about her. "Our total focus is protecting her," he said.

Sailor's father was a longtime pilot, Plotner said, and his children flew with him many times.

On Friday, a Piper PA-34 that was carrying the family went down in western Kentucky. Even though the aircraft was upside down, Sailor managed to make it out and walk three-quarters of a mile in the dark through very rough terrain, across fallen trees and ditches. She navigated around creeks and over blackberry briars despite wearing only one sock, a T-shirt and shorts, and no coat.

She knocked on Larry Wilkins' door.

"She said, 'My mom and dad are dead. We had a plane crash. The plane was upside down.'"

On CNN Monday, Wilkins said the girls' legs were cut and scratched from the bottom of her shorts to the tips of her toes. She was a little wet because it was drizzling.

Wilkins put her on his couch and called 911, alerting authorities that a plane had gone down and there was at least one survivor.

Wilkins said his two Dachshunds helped calm the girl down. The child's grandfather later told him that she had a Dachshund.

"I know she's having an extremely hard time and probably in her mind she doesn't understand everything that's going on," said Wilkins.

Though she was trembling and crying, the little girl seemed "amazingly composed," he said, given the circumstances.

Children who experience the sudden loss of a family member process that grief in ways that are specific to their age, say mental health specialists who treat young patients.

Losing one relative elicits complex feelings; losing several relatives, particularly parents, is uniquely overwhelming.

On top of her grief, Sailor will also have to grapple with the trauma she endured being part of the event that killed them.

"It's critical that Sailor feel safe and loved -- that has to happen right away," said Dr. J. William Worden, a psychologist who has treated grieving children and co-directed Harvard's seminal study on childhood bereavement.

The Gutzler family is not saying where the child is living, and that's a very good move, Worden said. Journalists camping outside her door could scare and traumatize her, he said.

Other mental health experts who specialize in treating children advise that the family try to keep as normal a routine as possible. They must keep in mind that grief is a process. It's not a problem to be fixed.

There's no rush, they say, for her to see a counselor.

And it could be damaging for an interviewer without training in child trauma to question her now, said Dr. Donald Freedheim, a professor emeritus of psychology at Case Western University.

He has treated children after disasters.

"If they called me, I wouldn't say, 'Send her to my office.' I'd go to her home and we'd just sit down. I would be a friend. She can't feel threatened in any way," he said.

Sailor should be allowed to provide cues as to how adults behave around her.

"If she wants to talk about what happened, let her. If she doesn't, then let her be for a little while," Worden said. "When you have too many losses in too short a period of time, in children, their grieving process can shut down."

Sometimes, children develop somatic symptoms in place of grieving. Young children act out because they don't have the developmental tools yet to articulate how they feel. Older children and teenagers sometimes get headaches, stomachaches or anxiety disorders, he said.

Each of Sailor's relatives' deaths should be addressed separately, experts advise. The way Sailor will process the loss of her sister is apart from the way she will grieve for her mother.

Sailor will deal with those losses differently as she gets older. She will feel them differently from the way she felt them at ages 12, 18 and 25, said Dr. Therese Rando of The Institute for the Study and Treatment of Loss in Rhode Island.

A 7-year-old generally understands what death is but doesn't yet have the ability to comprehend the implications of it, experts say.

A common coping mechanism at that age is denial, said Rando.

The adult world is stunned and impressed that Sailor managed to get up from the wreckage site, walk in the dark, in frigid temperatures, across a rough, wooded area to get to a man's house, knock on the door, tell that stranger what happened and ask for help.

But that action shouldn't be interpreted as a sign that Sailor is somehow more capable of recovering than any other child who faces such a horrific tragedy.

"She may have acted amazingly composed," said Rando. "But what might be happening on the outside isn't necessarily what's happening on the inside. She will have to deal with this trauma in a way that unfolds over a lot of time. She will have to work this for the rest of her life."

Still, AC Morgan, who survived a small plane crash himself in 1998, encouraged Sailor to draw on that same strength she showed after the crash as she faces a challenging healing process.

"If you ever question if you can do it, look back at what you did -- you were able to get out of a plane, you were able to walk three-quarters of a mile in the dark, by yourself and find safety. You can do it, no matter what."

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long road ahead for 7-year-old plane crash survivor  - cnn

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Long road ahead for 7-year-old plane crash survivor - CNN

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They are doing everything they can to make the 7-year-old feel safe and loved -- a simple but critical act that mental health experts say can help the child begin grappling with being the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed her parents, sister and cousin.

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Josh Peltz, 39
Flight: US Airways flight 1549
Crash landing: The Hudson river, New York
Date: 15 January 2009
I'd like to think anyone in my seat would have done the same thing. I was in 10F, the window seat of the emergency aisle, on the right side of the plane. I fly for business every other week and I try to get a seat with extra leg room. I'm not a nervous flyer; in fact, I was napping as we took off. A few minutes after takeoff came a loud explosion like a car backfiring. The plane jolted and there was a smell of burning machinery. Everybody gasped and there were a few screams.

Looking out of the window, I could see us rollicking back and forth; we were so high up, the houses looked like toys and the cars like ants. But we weren't falling, so I thought, "OK, one of our engines has blown, but we have another engine, we're returning to La Guardia, the pilot has everything under control." I didn't realise that both engines had failed.

It was eerily quiet - everyone was assessing the situation. It soon became obvious we weren't going to La Guardia, we were headed for the water, and I started thinking this could be it. I thought about my wife, Tesa, and our two children, Adeline, nearly three, and Zy, who was 12 weeks, and I tried to make peace. Then I heard the announcement, "This is the captain, brace for impact", and everything suddenly got very clear. I had to stop thinking about death and start thinking about what I was going to do once the pilot landed in the water. "You sat in this seat," I thought, "you've got to get this door open."

At about 300ft, I started reading the instructions. There were six steps, and I read them two or three times, testing myself on each step and trying to envision myself opening the door. We were headed for the water fast. I cinched my seat belt tighter and tighter, and balled myself up over my overcoat.

Then we hit the water. It felt like the worst car wreck you could imagine. We bounced and skidded to a halt. A lot of people had bloodied noses or eyes from hitting the seat in front of them, but my first thought was, "This plane is sinking, we have to get everybody off as soon as possible."

Someone next to me was trying to pull the door in and I said, "No, it's got to go out." Thankfully, I'd just read that. I knew people would rush to the emergency exit, so if it had jammed there would have been a pile-up. I managed to get the door open and I grabbed the hand of a woman sitting next to me, Jenny. We walked out on to the wing, holding each other for support, the initial blast of cold air hitting us.
Upton Rehnberg, 72 Flight: United Airlines flight 232
Crash landing: Sioux City, Iowa
Date: 19 July 1989
The waves were lapping over the wing and it was sinking lower. We pushed as far along as we could to make room for other people. I heard later that people at the back were shoving and pushing as the plane started to fill up with water, but on the wing everyone was helping each other. It was freezing, and nobody had a jacket. Some people were submerged up to their waists. I was thinking, "OK, now we're going to drown. We're going to die of hypothermia."

It felt like half an hour before we saw the first ferry, although it can have been only five or 10 minutes. It was tantalisingly close. For a moment I thought about swimming for it, but I remembered hearing that hypothermia sets in in seconds, and within minutes your limbs no longer work. If you submerge your head, your brain doesn't function properly.

I was fourth on to the ferry, and I started helping people on to the boat. There was a woman clutching a baby for dear life, and a man who had been submerged completely and was incoherent, laying on the deck of the ferry, moaning. The ferry drivers gave out their jackets and the shirts on their backs for people who were freezing.

I've had a lot of trauma since the crash. I've thought of alternative scenarios: the door not opening and being crushed. The wing catching in the water and tipping us in a cartwheel over and over until the plane falls apart and I'm upside down, submerged in water. And I've also thought, why me? Why am I still here? But one thing I will take away from the experience is how everyone pulled together. It's comforting to know I was able to respond in a crisis. I got through it by taking it one step at a time; figuring out my next 10 seconds of action. Get the door open, throw the door out, figure out if you're sinking. What is the immediate next thing I need to do? And the next? I just kept on doing that until I reached solid ground and got into the ferry terminal and talked to my wife. Only then did I go into the men's room and let myself cry for a few minutes.

I'd changed on to flight 232 at the last minute in the hope of getting home from a business trip for my son's ninth birthday. I usually ask for a seat at the back, but 9A, a window seat by the left side emergency exit, had been one of the last available. If I'd taken my usual seat, I would be dead.
Rosebell Kirungi, 41 Flight: Small chartered flight
Crash landing: Rwenzori mountains, Democratic Republic of Congo
Date: 25 September 1998
I was sitting in front of a flight attendant and, just over an hour into our journey, I leaned over to her and said quietly, "The pilot is flying this plane in a very strange way." There had been a loud explosion, but an announcement had reassured us that we had lost only one engine and everything seemed to return to normal. The attendant said, softly, "Hydraulics." I didn't know that everything on that plane worked off the hydraulic system, and it had lost all power.

The flight attendants gave every appearance of business as usual. Then, 30 minutes after the explosion, they told us to adopt the brace position. They said we should be prepared for the worst.

I still didn't think we were going to die. I assumed they would be able to get the aeroplane down. It was quiet. I remember taking off my tie - I don't know why. I put my reading glasses in my shirt pocket, tied my shoelaces and waited.
Dominica McGowan, 57 Flight: British Midland flight 92
Crash landing: The embankment of the M1 near Kegworth, Leicestershire
Date: 8 January 1989
I later learned that we hit the ground at 260mph; the normal landing speed is around 150. The right wing hit the ground first and started a fire. The plane slammed down, bounced up, came back down on to its nose and began to cartwheel.

The noise and impact were incredible. I couldn't hold the brace position and I bounced upright with my arms over my head. A fireball of burning fuel came through the seal of the door next to my left knee and hit me in the face. It melted the front of my Dacron shirt, burned my chest and the gap between the tops of my socks and my trousers.

The plane broke into five sections and each went in a different direction. We were thrown around viciously, and I was knocked unconscious. When I came round, I was hanging upside down from my seat belt. I undid it and walked across the ceiling of the cabin to the exit. There were cables hanging down, so I held them up, letting the people behind me get out. I was just aware of the need to keep people moving so they weren't blocking each other.

In a plane crash, people sit around waiting for direction, but being prepared can make all the difference. Now when I fly, I wear natural fibres. Often I wear a sweatshirt with a hood. A man in the burns unit with me was a flight engineer, and he told me that when airline personnel are passengers, they're taught to cover their head with a blanket in an emergency landing. But there aren't enough blankets for every passenger.

Dressing in a way that covers up as much of your body as possible, counting the rows from your seat to the emergency exits, knowing how to open them and moving quickly can make all the difference. You are the person you have to look to to save your life.
Mercedes Ramirez Johnson, 34 Flight: American Airlines flight 965
Crash landing: A mountain in Buga, Colombia
Date: 20 December 1995
It was a chartered flight from Uganda and we were just coming into Congo. I was seated over the wing, by the window. I was the only woman on board, with nine men.
Fred Jones, 58 Flight: As co-pilot in a Piper Cherokee
Crash landing: A Shropshire hillside
Date: 2 April 1988
About 45 minutes into the flight, I could see from my seat that the plane was flying very low over the mountains. The pilot announced he was losing control and I put on my seat belt. Other people panicked. I was thinking about my family, and praying. My worry was that if I died, my daughter was only four, I was a single mum, and I didn't want her to lose me. Within three minutes, the plane had crashed into trees, tearing off the wing next to me, and nose-dived into the mountain.

The plane was in pieces. Some of the others went through the windscreen, but I was still strapped into my seat, with no injuries - the only thing I had lost were my shoes. I found myself taking off the seatbelt. The seats had been thrown from their position. There was no way to go forwards or backwards; the only way to get out was to climb out of the hole over the wing. I was very calm and determined, which I think was down to my faith. I got out and gave first aid to the other passengers who were in pain and bleeding. I got water from the plane and tried to keep them calm.

We knew the Congo rebels were in that area and we were afraid we might be found and killed. We divided ourselves into two groups of five to look for rescue parties. We got up at six and walked until seven or eight at night. It was raining and snowing, and we had nothing to eat or drink. I didn't know which direction I was walking in, but I believed my life had been saved and the rest was up to me.

The others died one by one. The first day we lost three of our group. They didn't have the strength to keep going and disappeared into the jungle. By the ninth day, I was on my own. I was rescued finally on the 10th day of walking, by a UN organisation and people from the Ugandan army. They couldn't see the plane crash site from the air, so they'd had to send a group out on the ground. I had walked more than 100 miles. On the walk, I had developed gangrene. The medical facilities where I was rescued were inadequate. I was later airlifted to a better hospital, but by then my toes were turning black. They amputated both of my legs below the knee.

I look back in a very positive way. It happened for a reason. I learned to walk again, learned to drive again and did a degree. I even still enjoy flying.
How to improve your chances of survival
* Rosebell Kirungi now runs Limbsworld ( limbsworld.com), a charity to rehabilitate and retrain Ugandan amputees.

We'd already had a meal and a glass of wine, and suddenly there was an announcement to say we were having difficulties. The stewards came racing through the plane, gathering up the dishes and throwing them into plastic bags.

I was a counsellor at the time, and the young woman sitting next to me in the aisle seat was quite upset, so I was saying, "Do you know anybody who's ever been in a plane crash? What are the chances of it happening to us?" My friend Margaret was by the window, over the wing, and she kept saying, "Look at the smoke!" But I wasn't paying any attention.

Then the pilot made an announcement, telling us to prepare for a crash landing. I thought he meant bumpy. It never dawned on me that we might actually crash. But I leaned forward and put my hands over my head, and the next thing I remember is this rubbery sound, like a flat tyre, and a crunch.
Sit in the aisle
I thought I'd remained conscious throughout, but I've since been told I couldn't have. I don't remember coming to, but I remember blackness, and becoming aware that we'd stopped. I tried to wake Margaret, but she was unconscious, as was the woman on the other side of me. I just thought to myself, "I've got to get out of here."
Seat your family together
I released my seat belt and scrambled to the exit. I met firemen coming on to the plane, and they helped me down a canvas chute. And then I was lying on the ground in the freezing cold and somebody had rigged up a drip.
Practise releasing your seat belt
The next thing, I was in the ambulance. I had a fractured skull, a fractured shoulder, broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken femur and my back was very badly damaged. I was in intensive care for a week and then on the wards for another week. Margaret was in intensive care for longer. She is still in a wheelchair.

When I got home and saw the crash on TV, and heard that 47 people had died, that's when it really hit me. I thought everybody had crawled out like me. But I knew about post-traumatic stress through my work, and how important it was to talk about what had happened, to absorb it and allow it to become part of your life.
Practise the brace position
I was back at work by February. I have always been robust. Of course, I was lucky to be able to get up out of my seat. There were many people who were seriously injured, or didn't survive. But going into that situation I was already quite hardened. Those instincts were there. I'd had a hard struggle in life, things had been tough. So the crash was another challenge I had to overcome.

The more anxious and tentative you are going into an experience like that, the more traumatic it's going to be. I don't look back on my life and think, "God, I was in a plane crash." I look back and think, "I didn't die, people were very kind and helpful." I know how lucky I was walking away from that.
Take the lead
It was my 21st birthday, and my parents and I were on our way to Cali, Colombia, to spend Christmas with my father's side of the family. It was around 9pm, we were only about 15 minutes from landing when, without warning, the pilot pulled the nose of the plane straight up into the air. The cabin was shaking violently, the turbulence was unbelievably strong. And there was panic.
Listen to the safety briefing
My mother was in the row in front. I was next to my father, in the exit row over the wing, but I remember hearing my mother praying. Her voice calmed me down. I didn't think we were going to crash or die. I just kept thinking, "Hurry up and fix this. Straighten it out." Then we heard this incredibly loud booming sound from the back of the plane and there was a strong vibration. I grabbed my father's hand and he held mine really tightly. I put my head in my lap and closed my eyes.
Take responsibility
When I came round, I was disoriented. Everything was in pieces all around me. The middle of my right thigh was bent and the bottom half of my leg was behind me, but I couldn't feel any pain. I was laying in the aisle, and I could hear a man's voice outside, so I dragged myself towards him. He pulled me out. Only four of us survived, all from the middle section of the plane. We waited 18 hours on the mountain for help.

It wasn't until I got to hospital that I realised how badly I was injured. My leg was broken, I had injuries to my spinal cord, my back, internal injuries from the seat belt, broken ribs. Reporters came into my hospital room disguised as doctors and nurses and, on live television, told me my parents had passed away. I've seen footage of that interview, but I don't remember talking to them.

It was later discovered that 15 minutes before the plane crashed, the pilots accidentally entered the wrong code into the flight computer. They didn't realise we were heading into the mountains until the ground-proximity warning system started to sound. That was when they pulled the plane up. That loud booming sound was the back of the plane hitting the mountain.
Your behaviour matters
When we took off, it was a lovely, clear day. Very cold. We passed the Long Mynd, a small mountain range. Suddenly the side windows froze up and you couldn't see through them. I was co-pilot. The pilot, Ken Turner, said through the headset, "Feel your controls." It was as if they'd been welded up.

Ken was quiet, I was quiet, trying to think what to do. We were hitting the controls, trying to put the heater on, but nothing worked. Then the engine started to miss. The carburettor had frozen up and the fuel had frozen in the lines. We were in freefall. The next thing I heard was Ken putting a Mayday out on the radio. Up my back I felt a cold chill. Neither of us said an awful lot.

We didn't panic, but it was very chilling. We didn't have parachutes. We couldn't open the door in any case, because it opens against the wind. I didn't even try to get into a protective position because, at the speed we were going, it was pointless. If you're on a collision course in a light aircraft and fate isn't with you, you've had it. I was resigned to the fact that in the 57 seconds it took us to come down, there was nothing we could do.

We kept trying to restart the engine in case some fuel had got through. The only other thing I could do was to try to turn the trim on the winding wheel above my head, to give the plane a bit more drag and slow the speed of the descent. When I was in a coma in the hospital, they say I was raising my right arm and winding, as if adjusting the trim.

All I knew at the time was that I was going to die. I was dropping in a plane at 180mph from 8,000ft. I felt the total shock of realisation that that's it, you've had your chips. You've had a damned good life - I had a business that was basically printing money - but it was going to end that day. All I wanted was a phone. I just wanted to speak to my two young lads and tell them, "Everything's all right, look after Mummy."

The shadows of trees started coming past the side window. Then there was this almighty crunch, which was the port wing catching a tree. It sheared off level with the cockpit, which fell to the ground. I went straight through the dash. My face went through the glass, cut my nose clean off and my eye out. I don't remember the slightest pain. Everything went black.

I was trapped in the cockpit, on the hillside. We were so fortunate the plane didn't burn up or that would have been it, but we'd lost the fuel when we lost the wing.

The next thing I remember was waking up three weeks later in Shrewsbury hospital. I'd lost an eye, my nose, broken my spine, shoulder, jaw and ankle. It's a tribute to the care I got that I was ever able to walk again.

Before, I was a businessman. I had my own company that I'd built up. I had a bit of a short fuse. The crash changed my attitude. Every day is a bonus. Even on an awful day, I'm here, I'm breathing ·

Ed Galea, professor in mathematical modelling at the University of Greenwich in London, has compiled interviews with more than 1,000 survivors of 105 accidents. He outlines the steps you can take to improve your chances of survival.

Keep your shoes on until the aircraft has reached cruising altitude and before the plane starts to come in to land. If you have to get off the aircraft quickly, there may be debris in the cabin and outside, and you'll need your shoes.

Get a seat as close to an exit as possible

Survivors travel on average within seven rows of a viable exit. If you are within five seat rows of a viable exit, your chances of surviving are greater.

There is no real advantage to sitting at the front or the back of the plane, but statistics show you have a slightly better survival chance sitting by the aisle than by the window, because you can start moving towards the exit a lot quicker.

In an emergency, families who are separated will try to reunite before they evacuate, causing havoc. Book the seats together or, on a low-cost airline that does not have seat reservations, ask to be moved to sit together. Also make a plan for who is responsible for each child, so there's no confusion in the event of a crash.

A disturbing number of people had difficulty releasing their seat belts, mainly because they were trying to push buttons, as you would in a car. I always keep my seat belt done up all the time I'm seated.

Count how many seat rows you are from an exit, in front and behind, in case one is blocked. In a dark or smoke-filled environment, you might not be able to see where the exit is. In past accidents, we've seen people going past viable exits, not realising they were there. When we approach takeoff or landing, I always sit up in my seat and have a good look around me.

There is no point sitting close to an exit if you are physically unable to get out. The brace position is designed to minimise the chances of you being knocked unconscious or breaking a limb.

Amanda Ripley, author of The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - And Why, has spent years studying how the brain works in disasters such as plane crashes. She reveals how to think like a survivor.

We tend to become passive and obedient in crashes. Panic is extremely rare; much more common is silence and docility. In the 70s, there was a series of crashes in which most of the passengers survived the initial impact but were found dead in their seats with their seat belts on. Psychologists found that this reaction is common in any situation where people are in a passive position before an accident happens. In a plane, you follow orders - you're not in control. People tend to continue playing that role after a crash.

Safety experts have found that the more information passengers have before an accident, the more effective they will be. People who read the safety briefing cards do have a higher chance of survival. This is because, in unfamiliar environments, we tend to shut down. The more familiar you are with your environment - for example, counting the rows between you and the exit - the less likely you are to make mistakes.

In disasters, people tend to group together and become considerate of each other. People who sit in the exit rows can save hundreds of lives if they move quickly. Time and time again we found that passengers don't like to throw the exit door out - it goes against everything in your being. If you prepare yourself, you can override that instinct.

Educate yourself

It's important to know why you need to respond in certain ways. For example, if oxygen masks are dropped down, they always say put yours on before your child's - if you knew that, in a rapid decompression - which is not unusual - you have 10 seconds before you lose consciousness, then you'd make sure you followed that advice.

Between 1983 and 2000, 56% of passengers involved in serious plane accidents survived. It's important to realise they are survivable, and that what you do can make the difference. An active, engaged, confident outlook about your role in the situation is very powerful.
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Plane crash survivors tell their stories

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Josh Peltz, 39 Flight: US Airways flight 1549 Crash landing: The Hudson river, New York Date: 15 January 2009 I'd like to think anyone in my seat would have done the same thing. I was in 10F, the window seat of the emergency aisle, on the right side of the plane.

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There are new details in the remarkable story of a little girl who lived through a plane crash that killed her family and then walked through the woods, barefoot and bloodied, to get help. We're now getting a better sense of her bravery that night.

On Sunday morning, a new photo of the Gutzler family was posted by a relative on Facebook. It comes as new details surfaced about the 7-year-old girl named Sailor, who is the sole survivor of the plane crash that killed her father, mother, sister, and cousin.

The plane took off from Key West, Florida Friday night. Her father, Marty Gutzler, was in the pilot seat. He was taking the family back home to Illinois. But just before 6 p.m. local time, he reported engine problems and lost contact with air traffic controllers. The plane crashed, ending up upside down. But nobody seems to have seen it fall from the sky.

FAA records reveal that Gutzler, the man at the controls, was an extremely experienced commercial pilot and a certified flight instructor.

Police say little Sailor -- alone, barefoot, and bleeding -- walked through dark, thick brush and woods and followed a light in the distance. She ended up at the doorstep of Larry Wilkins.

"She thought her arm was broken, and her left foot was hurting pretty bad," he said. "She was barefooted by the way, she had one sock."

Police say Sailor had to get through hills, creeks, even railroad tracks in total darkness. She walked for about 15 to 20 minutes in that rough terrain.

"She walked through briers and thorns," said Kentucky State Police Lt. Brent White. "There's one creek bed that was probably 12-foot deep that she walked through to get from point A to point B."

White added that the girl "was dressed for Florida," wearing shorts and a short sleeve shirt despite the temperature being 38 degrees. The family was headed to their hometown of Nashville, Illinois, at the time.

"She didn't have very much clothing on at all," White said.

Little Sailor walked, while knowing the whole time that her parents had died.

"She indicated to us that she believed her family was deceased but that she hoped they were just sleeping," Lt. White said. "I was literally just struck by how calm she was able to and the ability for her to give us this information."

"I wouldn't want to go into those woods right now in the dark," said Wilkins. "There's no doubt in my mind. She's a brave little girl."

Back home, the family is beloved. Marty and his wife Kimberly owned a furniture store. Their home was a place where all the neighborhood kids would gather.

Family friends say Marty, a longtime pilot, had made that same trip to Florida before.

"He loved flying," said family friend Fred Prug. "I mean, you didnt have a conversation with Marty without him talking about flying."

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7-year-old braves woods after plane crash that killed family

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There are new details in the remarkable story of a little girl who lived through a plane crash that killed her family and then walked through the woods, barefoot and bloodied, to get help. We're now getting a better sense of her bravery that night.