Laurence Gonzales, the author of Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival, provides a list of eight steps you can take to help ensure your survival in a plane crash.

I’ve often heard it said that once you decide to fly, you are helpless. Your fate is in someone else’s hands, so what difference does it make what you do? You might as well have a drink and go to sleep.

I’ve also heard people say that planes don’t crash, so why worry? And if they do crash, no one gets out alive, so there’s really nothing you can do.

Wrong on all counts.

Planes do crash, and people do live through some of those crashes. Moreover, there are steps you can take to make sure that you are among the survivors.

Here are eight tips for your next trip.

1. Pay Attention

The flight attendants are not there to serve you peanuts. They are the first line of defense in saving your life if something goes wrong. At the beginning of each flight, you should take them seriously as they try to tell you about that very unlikely possibility. Listen to the safety briefing. Study the safety card. Do you want to try to figure out which way the door handle moves while the plane is filling with smoke? Better to do it in those calm moments before you take off.

2. Know Where You Are

Count the number of rows between you and the nearest exits. Note if there are window exits. Some large aircraft have only door exits. (They are not called “entrances” because anyone can get on a plane but not everyone can get off.) If you’re injured, panicked, and/or hampered by smoke, do you know which way to go? Decide beforehand.

3. Know Where Your Life Vest Is

Remember Sully Sullenberger and his landing in the Hudson River? If the sign says the vest is under your seat, reach down and make sure it’s there. Then study the instruction on the safety card. Note that on some airplanes, life vests for infants are beneath every other row of seats. On other airplanes, the crew must hand out the life vests. If you have an infant, ask this question before you need to: Where is the life vest for my baby?

4. Wear Natural Fibers

Airliners are flying fuel tanks. When things go wrong, fire is a possibility. You want as much protection as possible. Synthetic clothing is essentially made of plastic, which melts and burns you. Natural fibers such as cotton, wool, and leather offer great protection against fire. Wear long sleeves, long pants (no skirts!), socks, and leather shoes with closed toes (no sandals!). If you can get a wool blanket from the flight attendants (possible only on international flights), put it over your head and body in the event of a crash landing.

5. Wear Your Seatbelt

You wear your seatbelt in your car when you may be going only 30 miles an hour around town. In an airliner, you’re going 500 miles an hour. If you hit a brick wall of turbulence, it’s going to hurt. It could kill you. Greg Feith, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), entered an aircraft after one incident of turbulence and found footprints on the ceiling. Fasten your belt across your pelvic bones, not your stomach. Don’t get up unless you have to. Barry Schiff, a retired airline pilot and noted author and expert, had this tidbit to add: “If you are in the john when the captain turns on the Seat Belt sign during the flight, and it becomes turbulent, ignore the small illuminated sign that directs you to Return to Your Seat. Instead, remain seated in the john and hang on to a handle until conditions calm. Walking to your seat during turbulence can be the one of the most hazardous things you’ll ever do on an airplane.”

6. Give Your Children Seatbelts

Children are people, too, and subject to the laws of physics. I recently saw a young couple come on board with a car seat for their two-year-old. But their infant — apparently under one year old — had no protection. She sat in her daddy’s lap. Fortunately, there was no severe turbulence, no crash, and the little girl arrived safely. Not so for Sabrina Lee Michaelson and Evan Tsao on United Flight 232, July 19, 1989. Both their moms were unable to hold the babies, who went flying. Evan died. Sabrina flew into an overhead bin and was rescued by a Good Samaritan. Another lap child on that flight, Annabelle McNulty, three, flew out of her father’s arms and died. If you buckle up in the car, buckle up in the plane.

7. Sit near an exit

The question of where to sit is fraught with controversy. A former investigator for the NTSB, which investigates all airplane crashes, told me that he likes the tail, because the tail usually survives intact or nearly so. But most experts agree that being near an exit improves your chances of survival.

8. Leave your belongings behind

If you ever have to evacuate an aircraft, don’t try to take anything with you. You’ll slow down the evacuation, potentially endangering the lives of others, and most likely you’ll have to abandon your bag when you get to the exit, thereby blocking the way for others.

And remember that any airline flight is safer than the drive to the airport.

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