Shoulder straps? Seriously?
How are you going to certify that?
How much is it going to cost? Specially retrofitting costs?
What about children? What about babies? What about overweight people? What about obese people? What about very tall people? What about handicapped people? Is it going to be adjustable? Is has to be.... If so, what's the added weight and
volume of that solution? What about added maintenance? What's the cost of that added maintenance? What's the time lost with that maintenance? If the pre-tensioners fails, I'm sure it has to be immediately repaired, because regulators would never allow a seat that has a defective seat-belt to be occupied...
After certification, the usage surely would not be mandatory to all passengers because of several reasons (height, weight, special physical conditions and so on). If so, how are airlines going to train their crews so they can "force" the passengers that are eligible to use the shoulder straps to actually use it?... What's the criteria? How much time will it be lost on each flight because of it?
Originally Posted by Ian W
Car manufacturers would not dream of using such basic restraint systems indeed they would be illegal, yet their collisions are far less severe.
They wouldn't dream? Of course they would, because they already did... The only reason they presently don't is because of changed public perception towards safety, partially due to some publications like
Unsafe at Any Speed and others, and now safety is a selling point.
And when you state that aviation collisions are far more severe than car collisions, that's simply not true... The
survivable aviation crashes are far less severe than your average serious car accident, that calls for the 3-point seat belts, airbags and all those additional safety features. For instance, this Asiana crash everyone is talking about... All passengers survived and were able to walk from the airplane by themselves or with a little help (and this was a serious survivable airplane accident)... In a serious survivable car accident, you wouldn't even be able to move...
And finally, how many accidents have there been that justify the enormous cost? How many passengers would have been saved? How many serious injuries would have been avoided? Would the design, certification, implementation, training, lost revenue due to time lost on forcing the passenger to use it, maintenance and so on justify the investment vs the insurance premium airlines already pay to cover those said costs? I reallyyyyyy don't think so.
Regards.