5 ms·

I would give this incident 1/10. It's mind boggling to me why people think this is a big deal. Speaking of theatres and other venues, overcrowding them is way

by 4ad 10y ago

I would give this incident 1/10. It's mind boggling to me why people think this is a big deal. Speaking of theatres and other venues, overcrowding them is way worse. For once, they actually do catch on fire much more often then planes fall from the sky. I consider overcrowding a theatre criminal negligence, while I couldn't care less about (minimally!!) overcrowding a plane.

quirkafleeg 10y ago
As it says in the article: Such an over-crowded flight would have caused problems in an emergency evacuation, aviation experts said, and passengers would not have had access to oxygen if it was suddenly required. Additionally, you don't wear a seatbelt on a plane to save you from a crash, you wear it to stop yourself being injured during turbulence, or from injuring someone else by being thrown onto them. Obviously these people did not have seatbelts.
- jon-wood 10y ago
  I don't know if this is actually true, but I read recently that in the case of a crash the seatbelt isn't there to stop you dying, its to keep your body attached to your assigned seat so that you can be identified afterwards.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - stordoff 10y ago
    Sounds like the old "brace position is to kill you rather than injure you" myth to me. Struggling for a better source, but: > And the seat belts that flight attendants urge you to wear during most of the flight also helped to keep head and neck injuries to a minimum, says Dr. David King, a trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. “Clearly for the vertical deceleration [typical] of an airplane crash, the lap belt seems to be the most important restraint,” he says. http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/09/lessons-from-flight-214-should-airplane-seats-have-shoulder-belts/ http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/09/lessons-from-flight-21...
  - quirkafleeg 10y ago
    Haven't heard that before, but even if true people often move seats, so it wouldn't be very accurate.
  - FabHK 10y ago
    A myth. Sure, there are accidents where everyone perishes with or without seatbelt (and those make the headlines), but there are surprisingly many accidents where some or many people survive. > "between 1983 and 2000, more than 95 percent of people involved in U.S. plane crashes survived." http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=2619382&page=1 http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=2619382&page=1
    - 4ad 10y ago
      I agree that it is a myth, but that statistic is misleading, the definition used for "plane crash" is not one most people would agree with.
      - FabHK 10y ago
        Fair enough, but bottom line is that lots can happen on a flight that might injure you, without necessarily being a prototypical plane crash. So better wear your seat belts. Similarly, I take off my shoes during long flights, but make sure to have them on for take-off and landing, in case of evacuation.
roywiggins 10y ago
Don't need to fall from the sky to cause damage. Bad turbulence can break bones, doubly so if you're stranded in the aisle with nothing to hold you down. Airplanes have seatbelts for a reason.
robotresearcher 10y ago
It takes one sky-bump to throw every single one of those people against the ceiling head-first. This happens once in a while. An Air Canada flight in 2015 had 21 people injured, including a broken pelvis. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/tsb-investigation-air-canada-seatbelts-1.3991162 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/tsb-investigation-air-...
- ghaff 10y ago
  Not to excuse this in any way, but that sort of sky bump is a rare event, which is why you can find a news story about it. And, also per that story, people can end up getting hurt in those circumstances even though they're seated. Again, we don't have standing room planes for very good reasons. And breakdowns in safety protocols should be worrying. But as a one-off event, the incremental danger is actually pretty slight.
  - FabHK 10y ago
    Not that rare: Here's just some, mostly from 2016 and 2015: http://avherald.com/h?search_term=turbulence+injures&opt=0&dosearch=1&search.x=0&search.y=0 http://avherald.com/h?search_term=turbulence+injures&opt=0&d... Otherwise, totally agree: compared to total number of flights (there's maybe 1000 B737 and A320 in the air at any moment), rare (though potential consequences could be grave.) And, as you say, it's the negligence of basic safety protocol that's worrying.
JustSomeNobody 10y ago
If they break this rule and get away with it what other rules are they breaking? How many others will start breaking rules?

by 4ad 10y ago

quirkafleeg 10y ago

As it says in the article: Such an over-crowded flight would have caused problems in an emergency evacuation, aviation experts said, and passengers would not have had access to oxygen if it was suddenly required. Additionally, you don't wear a seatbelt on a plane to save you from a crash, you wear it to stop yourself being injured during turbulence, or from injuring someone else by being thrown onto them. Obviously these people did not have seatbelts.

jon-wood 10y ago
I don't know if this is actually true, but I read recently that in the case of a crash the seatbelt isn't there to stop you dying, its to keep your body attached to your assigned seat so that you can be identified afterwards.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- stordoff 10y ago
  Sounds like the old "brace position is to kill you rather than injure you" myth to me. Struggling for a better source, but: > And the seat belts that flight attendants urge you to wear during most of the flight also helped to keep head and neck injuries to a minimum, says Dr. David King, a trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. “Clearly for the vertical deceleration [typical] of an airplane crash, the lap belt seems to be the most important restraint,” he says. http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/09/lessons-from-flight-214-should-airplane-seats-have-shoulder-belts/ http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/09/lessons-from-flight-21...
- quirkafleeg 10y ago
  Haven't heard that before, but even if true people often move seats, so it wouldn't be very accurate.
- FabHK 10y ago
  A myth. Sure, there are accidents where everyone perishes with or without seatbelt (and those make the headlines), but there are surprisingly many accidents where some or many people survive. > "between 1983 and 2000, more than 95 percent of people involved in U.S. plane crashes survived." http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=2619382&page=1 http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=2619382&page=1
  - 4ad 10y ago
    I agree that it is a myth, but that statistic is misleading, the definition used for "plane crash" is not one most people would agree with.
    - FabHK 10y ago
      Fair enough, but bottom line is that lots can happen on a flight that might injure you, without necessarily being a prototypical plane crash. So better wear your seat belts. Similarly, I take off my shoes during long flights, but make sure to have them on for take-off and landing, in case of evacuation.

roywiggins 10y ago

Don't need to fall from the sky to cause damage. Bad turbulence can break bones, doubly so if you're stranded in the aisle with nothing to hold you down. Airplanes have seatbelts for a reason.

robotresearcher 10y ago

It takes one sky-bump to throw every single one of those people against the ceiling head-first. This happens once in a while. An Air Canada flight in 2015 had 21 people injured, including a broken pelvis. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/tsb-investigation-air-canada-seatbelts-1.3991162 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/tsb-investigation-air-...

ghaff 10y ago
Not to excuse this in any way, but that sort of sky bump is a rare event, which is why you can find a news story about it. And, also per that story, people can end up getting hurt in those circumstances even though they're seated. Again, we don't have standing room planes for very good reasons. And breakdowns in safety protocols should be worrying. But as a one-off event, the incremental danger is actually pretty slight.
- FabHK 10y ago
  Not that rare: Here's just some, mostly from 2016 and 2015: http://avherald.com/h?search_term=turbulence+injures&opt=0&dosearch=1&search.x=0&search.y=0 http://avherald.com/h?search_term=turbulence+injures&opt=0&d... Otherwise, totally agree: compared to total number of flights (there's maybe 1000 B737 and A320 in the air at any moment), rare (though potential consequences could be grave.) And, as you say, it's the negligence of basic safety protocol that's worrying.

JustSomeNobody 10y ago

If they break this rule and get away with it what other rules are they breaking? How many others will start breaking rules?