Aircraft Seatbelts

2009-11-29T01:11:00.000-08:00

Aircraft Seatbelts: The Humble Lifesaver

The humble seatbelt in an aircraft is such a small insignificant part of these huge monsters, one tends to ignore them and some of us even find them a nuisance; however history has shown us that time after time, unfailingly, seatbelts on aircraft come to the rescue and save lives. How often we read that familiar sentence “…if it was not for the seatbelt holding him in place he would surely be dead”.

I would like to share some very interesting facts about the aircraft seatbelt for all you good folks who travel and those who will travel, and who knows, next time you are told to put on your seat belt on an aircraft, you will do so willingly!

The aircraft seat belt is one of the most important safety inventions of our modern day history and it is to George Cayley that the credit goes for indirectly saving hundreds of thousands of lives globally. He is the inventor of the absolutely amazing aircraft seatbelt. Seatbelts evolved over the years from first being used in aircraft just before World War II to provide safety to stunt flyers, into a common place feature in most forms of transportation. Despite the general consensus that Cayley was the true inventor of the aircraft seat belt, it was Edward J. Claghorn who first patented the seat belt design in the mid 1880s. Aircraft seat belts were first on the scene and then began the evolution towards what it has become today. Seat belts came slowly to passenger automobiles, only making an appearance in the 1920s and then not really being given much emphasis until almost 30 years later.

When you board an aircraft one of the first things you should do is to fasten your seatbelt and cabin crew is always checking to ensure you do so. Don’t look at the aircraft seatbelt as a cumbersome burden, start looking at it instead with new eyes – it is there to help save your life should an occasion arise. When you are locked down and flying through very turbulent conditions there is far less chances for you to go flying through the air, causing injury to yourself and others. The common law of physics states that our bodies take on an enormous weight as we fly through the air with tremendous speed and impact on landing.

Today, all airline industries have more than realized the value of the humble seat belt and various inventions to check remotely seat belt status and sensors are being patented and installed. In fact you could say that ensuring use of aircraft seat belts has taken on a new urgency ever since hostile activities aboard aircraft have become common practice, sky-rocketing in intensity since the American horror of 9-11.

The invention of sensors to monitor aircraft seat belt usage has several advantages that can be summed up to include providing a better monitoring system without the cabin crew having to check constantly and double check; providing reduced risk of bodily injuring during turbulence and emergency landings, and providing information on headcounts. The arrival of sensors in aircraft seat belts are being taken to new dimensions where by it will help to restrain any body is a threat to the aircraft and be able to provide security with information about potential adversaries.

Astounding really, how far the humble aircraft seatbelt has come over a century later. Next time you get on a plane think of the information in this article and do wear your seat belt!