Rather a tangent, but the text "passengers adjusted their seatbelts in the cabin" made me wonder when seat belts were used in aircraft. In seems that in 1947,

Rather a tangent, but the text "passengers adjusted their seatbelts in the cabin" made me wonder when seat belts were used in aircraft. In seems that in 1947, when the Star Dust crashed, seat belts were available (https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/39537/when-did-airlines-start-using-seat-belts-for-passengers https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/39537/when-did-...) but perhaps were not frequently used. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/how-airline-industry-got-wise-seat-belts-180978271/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/how-airlin... says "But in 1947, debates raged over the safety of seat belts. In a New York Times piece published on November 20, DeHaven ridiculed the rumor that lap belts were unsafe. He described this misconception, which still rippled through the public, as “dangerous,” the result of “ignorance and superstition.”" See also the picture from the mid-1950s with people not using seat belts. I can't help but wonder if the author assumed modern practices were also common in the 1940s. Also, the linked-to story calls the plane "Stardust", but Wikipedia and other sources refer to it as "Star Dust". FWIW, "Star Dust falling : the story of the plane that vanished" seems like a good book on the event. https://archive.org/details/stardustfallings0000rayn/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/stardustfallings0000rayn/mode/2u... A text search find no mention of "belt" or "seatbelt". My suspicions piqued, I see the article refers to the Japanese researcher as "Wasiboro Ooshi" while Wikipedia uses "Wasaburo Oishi". Others use "Wasaburo Ooshi", but I can't find anyone else using "Wasiboro". I can't find the original paper. Apparently it's a book that's never been digitized.