As early as 1929, airline executives were arguing about the benefits of seatbelts on airplanes. While air travel was being promoted as a luxury experience, many scoffed at the idea of buckling passengers into their seats. Over time, the safety benefits of seatbelts were considered, particularly after the experience of World War II. But it took until 1972 to have seatbelts mandated on all passenger planes! The biggest stumbling block to universal adoption of seatbelts on planes was a particularly horrific plane crash on Halloween night of 1950. A Vickers VC-1 aircraft hauling passengers from Paris to London crashed on arrival and killed 28 people.
Four hundred yards out, the captain radioed the tower that he was overshooting the landing. But the craft was too low to pull out. Undercarriage retracted, the airplane touched down at a 20-degree angle with an estimated speed between 80 and 120 knots. It skidded over 100 feet, bounced, was airborne again for a half-mile, and finally thudded back to earth before catching fire. Only one flight attendant and one passenger survived.
When official inquiries began, Dr. Donald Teare, the go-to guy for autopsy examinations in celebrity deaths and high-profile transportation accidents, was asked to lead the team. His report to the public, in the September 22, 1951 issue of the British Medical Journal, included a statement that astonished the scientific community and fueled public skepticism over passenger restraints. “The immediate cause of death,” Teare wrote, “in more than half of the victims was acute flexion of the body over the safety belt.”
Suddenly, the seatbelt was considered not just dangerous, but deadly. Read how aviation experts reacted and turned things around at Air & Space magazine.