Why do pilots in airplanes have different type of seat belts compared to passengers?
In: Engineering
The lap-belt in your passenger seat is designed to keep your butt roughly in the seat during extreme turbulence or worse. But not to keep you from flopping all over. If the plane is getting thrown around violently you will get injuries… just not as severe as if you weren’t wearing the belt at all.
The pilots have to not only stay in their seat, but their arms and legs have to remain roughly oriented to the controls – won’t do to have a severe turblence jolt shove you sideways when your arms are on the controls – the shoulder straps minimize this.
Yeah, you could put 3 or 5 pt harnesses on the passenger seats too, but noone would ever wear them properly. Its hard enough to get people to keep on a simple lap belt (ask any attendant), let alone anything more strenuous.
And lets face it. If you’re ever on a plane where a 3 or 5 pt harness is saving your life, its really the pilot, maintenance and aircraft builders who are gonna save your life at that point.
Pilot’s need to be able to remain in their seat no matter the situation so they are able to regain or maintain control of the craft. A 5-point harness will hold them in place no matter the orientation of the craft.
Pilots use 5-point harnesses because it’s important that they stay safely seated should they need to make extreme maneuvers (IE: Inverting the plane). Lap belts just help keep you in the seat, but they do not prevent you from flailing around during high-G maneuvers.
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