It’s often said that the safest place to sit in a plane is at the back — and the only survivors of the recent Azerbaijan Airlines and Jeju Air crashes were in the rear of the plane. But, say safety experts,

South Korea’s leading low-cost carrier, heavy with debt and its stock already near record lows, is now facing intense public and government scrutiny.

Investigators assessing the survivability of a plane crash focus on five factors: integrity of the aircraft, effectiveness of safety restraints, G-forces experienced by passengers and crew, the environment inside the aircraft and postcrash factors such as fire or smoke.

Search operations after plane crash A sniffing dog, led by a police officer, searches the site of a Jeju Air passenger plane crash at Muan International Airport, southwestern South Korea, on Jan. 8, 2025.