The attachment of the seat belt halves is a catch 22 situation..... <img src="rolleyes.gif" border="0">
In this part of the World anyway, the halves were always secured to the seat frame with a split (or Cotter) pin, thus preventing easy removal by passengers. <img src="wink.gif" border="0">
However, they were removed (the pins) to save time. <img src="eek.gif" border="0"> During a turnround if you had a lot of soiled belts, particualrly after a very rough flight, or maybe a lot of drunks <img src="rolleyes.gif" border="0"> it would take too long for the cleaners to swap the belts, sometimes even causing a delay..... <img src="eek.gif" border="0">