this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 519 points 2 weeks ago (12 children)

It straps you to the seat so when the plane suddenly drops 50 feet due to turbulence your dumbass doesn't launch into the ceiling.

[–] [email protected] 203 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Yeah, and this is a much more frequent thing than crashes. I've been on planes multiple times when there was sudden turbulence and people without seatbelts lifted out of their seats. I don't think any of my personal experiences resulted in someone hitting their head, but that happens. There was just video of one earlier this year.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Ive seen a loaded drink cart get a few inches of the floor, though that one was intense enough that even the flight attendants adopted an "oh fuck we're about to die" face, which is comforting

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Probably less of an "everyone is going to die" and more of a "everyone is going to start screaming and vomiting" look.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Exactly as you describe.

That scene in the pilot episode of Lost. That's why.

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

I have observed that "very clever" people on the internet have a tendency to disregard solutions that are only partial, even if there is little to no downside to them.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 weeks ago (10 children)

"Oh yeah? Why should I be wearing a seatbelt in a car when it won't even save me if we crash head-on into a semi truck at 100 kph?"

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 weeks ago

Not even partial in this case. I mean, the "turbulence sending you into the ceiling" event is fully resolved here.

Anyway, just here looking for the common sense pedantic clarification, found it, so now here just to say good job.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

If you play the SNES version of Monopoly, you can play against CPU opponents. Mind you, this is artificial intelligence coded in 1992, on a cartridge with about 16mb of storage space for the entire game. Only a fraction of that is dedicated to the AI decision process.

If you propose a trade, I'll give CPU $5 in exchange for $0, the CPU will respond with NO DEAL!!!

But if you propose "I'll give you $100 in exchange for $0, the CPU replies "IT'S A DEAL!!!"

The CPU was holding out for a bigger handout!

Unrelated, but if you hold the B button, and don't release, you'll keep looping the shaking the dice animation. They use digital photo scans of a real hand/arm.......if it were disembodied. And the animation looks like he's just jacking off.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's a similar reason your wear a helmet on a bicycle/motorcycle, if a car hits you doing 50+ MPH you're probably done for regardless of whether you're wearing a helmet. If you go over your handle bars face first into the pavement doing 10 MPH it keeps that injury from being catastrophic.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Amen. Both sides of my head would be just scar tissue if not for motorcycle helmets. And that's just from sliding on the road, not hitting anything or being hit.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Have you tried not sliding on roads

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Yes! It’s pretty nice! 20 years since my last crash and still riding. I guess I learned something.

Most of those were on the racetrack back when I used to do that sort of thing, though. Occupational (hobbypational?) hazard.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah but the cartoon is funnier.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Also in the event of a crash you don't become a projectile that kills someone else.

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[–] [email protected] 141 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

The actual answer is that the seatbelt is there to keep your ragdoll ass from bouncing off the ceiling during heavy turbulence.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 weeks ago

For sure, anyone who has seen some of the videos of drink carts and luggage bouncing off the cabin ceilings during crazy turbulence shouldn't have any questions about the utility of seatbelts in less than catastrophic events.... Which of course is the goal even in 'crash' landings. There are crashes where seatbelts would obviously be worthless, but in anything short of that, you'll be happy that you weren't in a box with 300 human shaped dice being shaken up.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

I read this horrible post a few years ago where a PoS passenger didn't buckle up. So the car drove off a cliff, her body flew and killed people in the back seat who were buckled up. The driver survived since he was buckled in.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

this makes it sound like the driver intentiinally drove off the cliff in spite

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago

I was watching one air accident documentary where the plane dropped so hard that people who were unbuckled were launched into the ceiling and people found their phones and laptops in the back of the plane.

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[–] [email protected] 111 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That factoid is from a decade or two ago, when clear air turbulence was a lot rarer. Nowadays, due to global warming, turbulence coming out of nowhere is more common, and on occasion results in unbelted passengers being thrown into the ceiling and severely injured.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Do you have a source for that? I'm skeptical.

[–] [email protected] 70 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If you follow avherald.com for any length of time, you'll learn that 1) the vast majority of aviation incidents are completely benign, and 2) the vast majority of injuries aboard airliners are caused by passengers not wearing their seatbelts. The seatbelts aren't there for the once-a-decade crash; they're there for the once-a-month strong turbulence event, which the airplane itself will barely even notice.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

And in the rare horrific crash, the seat will not remain attached to the floor anyway.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

In the event of catastrophic damage leading to explosive decompression it should keep you from being sucked out into thin air. Like if the roof tears off like that one time. Or that Boeing thing. Or that other Boeing thing. Or that other other Boeing thing.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago

Or keep you from bouncing and hitting the ceiling in cases of extreme turbulence. Or yo help on cases of lower-speed crashes (cases where the plane goes into some nosedive are less likely), etc.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 weeks ago (13 children)

Crash survival statistics are actually quite surprising. Like, you have higher survivability odds in the back of the plane -- cause everyone in front of you is your crumple zone.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Planes rarely reverse into mountains.

And the survival statistics have a lot to do with the amount of work that has been put into making the worst case "controlled descent into terrain" scenario exceptionally rare.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

About 20 years ago I read a grim book about plane crashes. They claimed that the number 1 predictor of crash survivability on commercial craft was being a male between the ages of 20 and 50. They're apparently much better equipped to claw and climb over the other passengers on the way out.

Grim. I fly a lot and think about it at least every other trip.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

The stats of surviving in a plane are quite high.

The stats of surviving in a plane with at least one death are very low.

Usually, if anyone dies, everyone dies.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

No, people die on planes all the time. Almost 3 million people fly daily, I'm guessing people die in flight almost every day due to natural causes.

However, I'm sure the stats with 2+ people dying, survival odds are quite low.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (6 children)

Almost certainly true of ocean landings. But I've spent a lot of time in bush planes (no crashes, knock on wood). I've had colleagues survive crashes where others have died. Perhaps it is sample bias, or something particularly about remote crashes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Air_Flight_6560 -- two of the survivors were in the back, both working for our company. After the crash: one never returned, one just quiet quit over the next year or two.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yellowknife-plane-crash-kills-2-people-1.987369 -- this plane crashed into our office building, killing the pilots, but the passengers all survived. I wasn't there, but coworkers would often describe the experience inside the building.

It happens often enough that I have two examples where I'm only one degree of separation.

I had two colleagues survive a helicopter crash into a lake at full speed (calm day, no waves, pilot lost track of where the surface was) -- one of my coworked was ejected out the front window of the helicopter (seatbelt was on). Didn't even warrant a news story. But everyone survived this one, which may be a data point in your favour.

I don't have an actual source for stats. Got anything?

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago

Like, you have higher survivability odds in the back of the plane

But when you're sitting in the front during a crash the snack cart comes by one more time.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

.....what? Obviously. It's for turbulence, which is common. This comic is a joke, but not how it's intended to be.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 weeks ago (9 children)

No, comics are the primary legitimate source of facts so I'm sure it's true.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 weeks ago

I like the use of perspective in that last panel

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Wasn't this proven wrong on mythbusters too?

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 weeks ago

Yep - the seatbelt and the crash position are extremely effective at preventing death and lessening injuries

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Why does the seatbelt make a "cuck" sound?

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Is he clicking or unclicking it?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago

I thought he'd be unclicking it by context, but with the hand position it must be clicking it together.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Why does it say cuck on his pants though

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

rare non-horny Extra Fabulous comic

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