Air Bags Coming to Airplanes

Airplanes are now getting the air bag treatment, just as if they were a giant car flying around in the sky. Conventional wisdom previously held that when an airplane crashed, there was no need for any kind of in-seat safety restraints because everyone was going to perish regardless. Now, however, with crashes like the one in the Hudson River that only resulted in a few minor injuries and no deaths, the new school of thought speculates that perhaps people could use a little extra cushioning in case they might actually survive.

A new government-imposed crash-standard has been slowly phasing in over the last two decades; it goes into full effect this week, when the seats in newly manufactured planes will have to protect passengers from a crash 16 times the force of gravity. AmSafe currently manufactures most airline seat belts, and now they’re making seat belts with a bonus airbag tucked inside. “The air bag seat belt looks pretty much like a standard seat belt,” says Tom Barth, research director for AmSafe. The air bag is sewn onto the webbing and has a decorative cover. “People don’t really notice that it’s there,” Barth says. The new airbag seat belts are pricey, weighing at about $1,200 per belt rather than the standard $35 per belt sans airbag. John Hickey, a top official at the Federal Aviation Administration, says that the cost is worth it. “We were seeing accidents that, sure, some of them were terrible catastrophes and there was never going to be a survivor,” Hickey says. “But many of the accidents were of the nature that people were still in their seat, and maybe if was a little bit stronger, that person could have survived.”