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We’ve all seen Hollywood’s version of a plane crash. Everyone panics and freaks out. In the disaster field, panic is defined as contagious, groundless, unreasoning fear. Fortunately, that kind of panic almost never happens. It's not groundless or unreasonable to scream or cry when you're told to "prepare for impact." Nor is it hysterical or mindless to push toward the exits. That behavior is entirely rational and purposeful. In emergencies, researchers have found, most people actually freeze until they're told what to do. Some people also engage in what's called situational altruism -- they help each other.

In a crash, many people believe there's nothing you can do to save yourself. In truth, however, your life is in your hands. Some experts believe that as many as 30 percent of the deaths in airplane accidents could have been prevented if people knew what to do and took action.

Here are some key questions & answers about surviving plane crashes:

1. How often does only one person survive a plane crash? There have been 15 airliner crashes since 1970 with a sole survivor, according to data compiled by Dr. Todd Curtis, director of the Airsafe.com Foundation. Six of those survivors were minors and four were crew members, accounting for 66 percent of the total. "I can't figure out for the life of me why crew members and children tend to be disproportionate in these sole-survivor events," Curtis tells CNN. "You scratch your head and wonder why is that? Is it because children can best survive crash forces? Is it because you only have small survival spaces in an aircraft and the smaller you are, the more likely you are to survive?" Curtis told ABC News. "Those are plausible explanations ... but no one has done any sort of analysis that I like to call vaguely scientific or mechanical."
   The most recent sole survivor story involved a 13 year old girl named Bahia and a plane crash in the stormy Indian Ocean in June 2009. Bahia barely swim and didn't have a life jacket. Her plane - an Airbus 310 with 153 people on board - crashed in rough weather while preparing to land in the Comorros, the tiny island nation. Bahia was rescued after clinging to debris for around 12 hours in shark-infested waters. Bahia returned home to France, where her father, Kassim explained she had been ejected during the crash and "found herself beside the plane." He described her as "fragile" and said she could "barely swim". "She is a very, very shy girl. I would never have thought she would have survived like this. I can't say that it's a miracle, I can say that it is God's will," he said.
   One of the most extraordinary sole survivor stories involves Julianne Koepcke, a 17-year-old who was flying in South America on Christmas Eve 1971. Her Lockheed turboprop encountered a lightning storm that destroyed one of the wings. Koepcke fell more than two miles into the Amazon jungle but survived with only minor injuries. Ninety-one other people aboard Flight 508 died. Today, Koepcke is a zoology librarian in Munich. She tells CNN the experience still haunts her, especially after tragedies like Air France 447 that crashed off the coast of Brazil. "It just horrifies me," she says. "I only hope it all went quickly for those on board." [For a list of the top 10 sole survivors of plane crashes, click here.]

2. Are Some Airlines Safer than Others? Definitely. According to Clive Irving in The Daily Beast,"more than 160 airlines are on (the European Union) black list, meaning that they are not allowed to fly into or out of E.U. countries." Irving notes the list includes "air carriers registered in Kazakhstan, Sudan, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Angola, Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo -- you get the picture. More significantly, it also includes all carriers 'certified by the authorities with responsibility for regulatory oversight' in Indonesia, which is hardly a Third World country, but which has a record of sloppy enforcement of safety standards."
   [According to news reports, Afriqiyah Airlines is not included on the EU's black list.]

3. Which is the safest seat on an airplane? There's quite a bit of contradictory evidence about which is the safest seat on an airplane. Some data suggests that sitting toward the front of the plane is safest. Some evidence suggests sitting toward the back is safer. Indeed, Popular Mechanics reviewed 20 airplane crashes and concluded: "Passengers near the tail of a plane are about 40 percent more likely to survive a crash than those in the first few rows up front." Many aviation experts dispute front vs. back distinctions, arguing that every crash is different.

4. So what should you do to improve your chances? Follow the Five Row Rule, says Professor Ed Galea of the University of Greenwich in London who has studied more than 100 plane crashes and their seating charts. He has also interviewed thousands of survivors and flight crew. After examining all the data, he recommends sitting within five rows of any exit. The closer you sit to any exit -- front, middle or back -- the better your chances of escaping in a survivable crash, Galea says. Aisle seats are marginally safer than middle or window seats because they afford more mobility and choices.

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