Plane seat belts throughout flights

Adapted extract from an item by Michael McCarthy in The Wall Street Journal (Nov 15th '95) monitored for the Institute by Roger Knights.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the States found that people are twice as likely to be seriously injured in turbulence as they are evacuating a jet in an emergency. Studying injuries on turbulent flights, the FAA found that the most common types were broken legs, ankles or feet. Back injuries ranked second.

Federal regulators are considering rules requiring passengers to keep seat belts buckled through the entire flight.

Coherent Technologies Inc of Boulder, Colorado, is developing an infrared laser system, tested during a space-shuttle landing last year, that can give warning of air turbulence by plotting wind fields up to six miles in front of an aircraft

Editorial comment

Having had a terrifying experience on an Austrian Airlines jet in '94, in which 17 people were injured, some seriously, by unexpected turbulence, I suggest that it is indeed worth keeping one's seat belt done up during a flight, although I doubt whether this should be mandatory.

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