The "Ten Percenter Solution".

Only the prepared will survive.

It is a generally accepted fact that in any even partially survivable airline accident (such as when an aircraft goes off the runway on takeoff or landing), about ten percent of the passengers will survive with little or no injury.

Every year during my airline flying career, as part of the ground school portion of recurrent training, the instructor would discuss in detail an accident or incident that had occurred in the industry. The concept was to learn from others’ mistakes so you wouldn’t repeat them yourself.

A famous example of the “Ten Percenter” phenomenon was when United Airlines Flight 859, an almost new Douglas DC-8, left the runway on landing at Denver’s Stapleton Field on July 11, 1961.

An outboard engine struck the edge of a runway under construction, ripping it from the wing and spewing fuel in a trail behind the jetliner as it finally came to a stop. This ignited, but temporarily, all aboard were safe because the passenger cabin had not been breached. Of the 122 souls onboard, 17 were eventually killed, most seated in the same area of the cabin.

After the temporary shock wore off, people began getting up and running for the exits to escape the smoke and flames that began entering the aircraft. In the far rear of the airplane, farthest from the flames as passengers began reacting, a uniformed military officer stood up, turned to look at those behind him, and shouted: “Remain in your seats with your seatbelts fastened until the crew tells us what to do!” Incredibly, most people in that section complied with his orders, remained seated, and died of smoke inhalation. The few who survived ignored him and ran aft, escaping through the rear exits. They lived to tell the story.

Often, these ten percenters are sitting in an area where those around them perish because of something called “negative panic”. They are so stunned by what is happening that they are temporarily paralyzed by shock and fear. Unlike them, if the aisles are blocked, the ten percenters will climb over seat-backs to escape. This has happened many times.

These people are wired differently mentally. They listen to the directions of the cabin crew during their safety briefing. They look at the instruction card in the seat-back pocket. They know where all the available exits are, including those nearest to their seat. They know how to operate the doors and emergency exit windows. They are “Ten percenters”, survivors.

I believe we are rapidly approaching a time when that sobriquet will be bestowed on another group of people. They are those among us who refuse to succumb to a society that has totally broken down because of factors the general public can’t even imagine. They are frequently derogatorily called “preppers” because they understand what could happen if this country is attacked in a fashion that has never occurred before, and are preparing to survive it.

Such a dystopian event could occur due to an EMP attack, as I describe in my novel The Water Lily Warriors. Or, it could come as the result of a physical or cyber attack on our extremely vulnerable electrical grid. A modern society simply can’t function. without a reliable source of electricity.

Most of us have experienced the inconvenience of a power failure of one sort or another. Imagine if that situation lasted not for hours or days, but weeks, months, or even years. Could your family survive such a catastrophe? No store-bought food. No fuel for your vehicles. No running water or sewage collection and treatment. No medicines or medical help. No heat or air conditioning. Nothing requiring electricity to function. You would literally be back in a pre-industrial age society.

Could you defend yourself from predators, both animal and human? Many, especially in large urban areas or close-in suburban areas, certainly could not. A Congressional study commissioned in the early 2000s predicted that up to 90% of the American population would be dead within a year under a worst-case scenario. That would mean only the ten percenters, the preppers, survive, wouldn’t it?

The “Memorandum of Understanding” between us and Iran has apparently broken down. Attacks against the Iranians have resumed and will surely escalate. Iranian sleeper cells are here thanks to Joe Biden’s open border policies. When will the attacks begin? When they do begin, will we be able to defeat them before it’s too late? Only time will tell, but don’t say you haven’t been warned.