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Scientists intentionally flew this airplane into the ground to learn how people survive crashes

plane crash
Discovery Channel

Everyone's seen a car go through a crash test.

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Fewer have probably seen a passenger plane make a controlled descent at 140 miles per hour into the Earth below.

The first-ever crash test for a commercial airliner occurred in 1984, when NASA conducted the Controlled Impact Demonstration. The only one since then took place just a few years ago, in 2012, when scientists and engineers sent an unmanned Boeing 727 crashing into the Mexican desert.

Onboard were numerous force gauges to measure the shock upon landing, 15 crash-test dummies coated in grease paint to signal their trajectory at the moment of impact, and cameras to catch the whole thing.

A 2012 Discovery Channel documentary entitled "The Plane Crash" shows the experiment in full.

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Here's the moment of impact.

Surprisingly, many of the overhead bins stayed secured. In addition to the cockpit fully detaching from the cabin, the only pieces that came undone were the trim around the main cabin and the emergency oxygen masks that deployed.

However, follow-up investigations showed many of the passengers would've sustained serious injuries. Many in first class would have died, and those further back would've sustained broken bones and head injuries, possibly full-blown concussions.

Passengers who had been wearing their seatbelts remained pinned to their seats, while those unbuckled passengers experienced a "submarining" effect, in which the momentum from the impact caused them to slide underneath the row of seats in front of them.

The results did show for the first time a clear advantage among those who "braced" for impact: either putting their head between their knees and hugging their legs, or placing their head on the seatback in front of them and their hands behind their head.

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People who braced for impact minimized the damage to their lower back — their lumbar spine — and protected themselves from flying debris.

Braced passengers stayed shielded, though they did risk some ankle injuries from the weight of their torso on top of their legs — a small price to pay for what could easily be a catastrophic tragedy.

Check out the Discovery Channel's full documentary below:

Boeing Science
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