Originally Posted by
WHBM
I suppose that duplicating the seat numbers from the PSU onto the bin units top rail has not occurred to anyone at Seattle ...
Could idea! The problem is that airlines are opposed to that. The top rail is a decorative item interchangeable to many locations in the cabin. If the seat/row numbers are located on those rails interchangeability goes away which the airlines are loathe to do.
Re downward-opening bins - is that also a safety feature, i.e. Designed to stop luggage braining passengers if bins pop open in flight? Curious.
No. When down/open the bins don't extend downward enough to strike a seated passenger. And when up/closed there is actually considerably more headroom in the aisle. Open bins do make it slightly harder for passengers to move from the aisle to the middle or window seat during boarding. The latches are quite strong and designed not to open during a crash, and when up/closed provide quite a bit more headroom for the middle and aisle seats and the aisle itself, so evacuation is improved.
