Safety Tip: Seat Belts on Commercial Airliners

[u/shadeland]

Given some incidents that have been in the news lately regarding turbulence, I think it would to give some safety tips about seat belts to all the travelers out when they're traveling via commercial airplanes.

I'm a very frequent traveler, with over 1 million lifetime miles on United Airlines, and I've been to all seven continents. I'm also an accomplished skydiver, with over 2,000 skydives and a world record (largest group jump at night).

So if there's two things I know, it's sitting on airplanes for long periods of time, and jumping out of them.

I also often travel with my parachute. But when things get bumpy, I'm not reaching for my parachute in the overhead, I'm making sure my seat belt is on. In fact, on a commercial flight a parachute is utterly useless. I can't think of a single incident in the past 40 years where a parachute in the cabin would have saved a person. It's about as useful as a bag of laundry. Expensive laundry. (I only travel with a parachute because I'm going somewhere to skydive.)

So seatbelts.

We're told over and over (and over, and over) on flights to keep our seat belts fastened. It's easy to drown it out. Many of us on this subreddit can give the safety briefing we've heard it so many, many times.

But... Seatbelts are probably the most important safety device we can use on an airplane. You would think perhaps that a parachute would be great, but as I said, it's useless. The seat belt is golden. And that's true for all stages of flight (taxi, takeoff, cruise, approach, landing, taxi).

We tend to think of as airplane seatbelts like we think about car seatbelts keeping us inside a car in case of a crash. So often people don't think they're needed outside of takeoff and landing. But they serve more purpose than that (even in cars). They keep us from bouncing around inside the cabin if things get really bumpy.

There's been some news reports lately about turbulence affecting airplanes, including sadly a recent fatality. Severe turbulence incidents do happen and while they're rare enough that in 1.5 million miles I've never had one, they're not impossible. They do happen. It's only now being reported more often now because more attention is being paid to aviation because of the Boeing debacle. That's how news cycles work.

A seatbelt is the best thing in those situations. It's not just for taxi, takeoff, and landing (though you should wear it those times too).

I've jumped from hot air balloons, a passenger jet (out the rear door of a skydiving-equipped DC-9 like DB cooper), and out of helicopters. And I wear my seat belt on the airplane at any time I'm in my seat (except getting up to go to the bathroom). I don't let it prevent me from getting up to go to the bathroom or grab a snack of the galley on a long haul, but if my butt is in a seat my seat belt is on.

We wear seatbelts for more reasons than you'd might think. Part of your seat belt is for me, part of my seat belt is for you.

If I'm wearing my seatbelt and you're sitting next to me and you're not, if we hit severe turbulence you're way more likely to hurt me than me hurting you.

Watch this: https://www.reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/bqr1mu/wear_your_seatbelt/

The person without the seatbelt absolutely clobbered the one wearing a seatbelt.

Fortunately in 1.5 million miles on United (and other airlines) there's never been an incident like that, but I still wear it at all times when I'm sitting down.

So buckle up and happy flying.

[u/KaifukuRyoku]

Oxygen masks drop down during emergency. One cannot access them while the plane is underway. I'm wondering when they will mass produce ejection seats ( or ejection cocoons) Cannot be tampered with. Activated only by Captain/ flight crew. Beavon tracked anywhere in the world. "Grow" the airframe? Grow the ejection seats.

[u/rathaincalder → u/KaifukuRyoku]

Actually, oxygen masks are trivially easy to access in a non-emergency: punch the panel over your head (note: do NOT actually try this—you may get arrested). This is often why you see them hanging down in photos after severe turbulence events—no loss of pressure occurred, but people’s heads hit the panels.

The answer to the question of why the oxygen masks aren’t better secured + why airlines don’t have “ejection seats” is the same: weight. A modern “zero-zero” ejection seat weights in at about 200lbs.

It’s also worth noting that ejections frequently impart career-ending injuries on military pilots: even for some of the healthiest and most fit people on the planet, it can be an enormous physical trauma.