Wings Again - And Seatbelts?

[Dave Homewood]

This article comes from The Press, dated 5th of May 1972. I am very surprised that seatbelts were not mandatory in aircraft before this point.

WINGS AGAIN

(N.Z. Press Association) HAMILTON, May 4. When a former R.N.Z.A.F. pilot, Mr J. B. Gordon, married he promised his bride that he would not fly again until they had grandchildren. Now the Gordons have their grandchildren and the Minister of Transport can enter fully the aerial section of his portfolio. he flew the Hamilton-built Airtrainer aircraft with a R.A.A.F. test pilot, a member of an Australian party evaluating the aircraft. He climbed into the

three-seater plane and fastened his seat-belt, telling photographers to “take a photo of that; we've just made them compulsory.” An Australian officer turned white: “You mean you’ve only just made seatbelts compulsory in planes?” Mr Gordon then took off for a half-hour flight above Hamilton. After the flight he said that the plane had a worldmarket potential. He was tremendously impressed by the improvements made since his flight in the aircraft six weeks ago.

[davidd]

This was John Bowie ("Peter") Gordon, Minister of Transport and former pilot of Hudsons, etc, in WW2. However I cannot think why he imagined that seat belts were NOT compulsory up till this time, at least in civilian aircraft (with exceptions allowing for sports parachutists, etc., and not to forgot those people in the USA who insisted on jumping from one aircraft to another in flight in the 1920s). I would have thought that seat belts were compulsory for most if not all civilian aircraft for decades before that date, and around the World generally. However, strangely, early "airliners" were not required to have seat belts in the very early 1920s, although a few accidents would have seen the authorities tightening up somewhat on any existing safety regulations. I seem to recall (from some early magazine articles) that very early airliners, from about 1919 onwards had wicker or cane chairs (for lightness of course!), which made rather poor anchoring structures for seat belts, but I gather that things improved rather more quickly with a few spectacular accidents bringing the blow torches of public opinion into play on the tails of the regulators. However in WW2 there were many large aircraft flown about, often full of passengers, with very poor seat belts provided, and I think that the first DC-3s used by NAC (and the RNZAF before them), which had very poor (or non-existent) passenger seat belts. "Proper" passenger seats had to be purchased (at great expense) from the US of A. Most larger bombers and maritime aircraft in WW2 did not have proper seat belts for most crew members, and in case of crash-landings they were instructed to move away from their usual positions (and especially if in nose of the aircraft), and try to brace themselves against some stronger part of the main structure, preferably behind the main wing spars (if these were accessible) or bulkheads.

We had a great stir up after an NAC DC-3 (ZK-AQT I believe) came to grief near Paraparaumu in 1954, although that was more about supervision of passengers in emergencies, as up till this time in New Zealand, the safety of passengers in flight was entirely the responsibility of the pilot(s). However, TEAL had stewards (initially all men) on their flying boats, who could presumably have assisted with this role, but I do not know if they received any training for this.

Military aircraft were under rather different rules, and although many such aircraft were fitted with good seatbelts, often superior to civilian types by virtue of fact that they had to sometimes, during military duty, be required to take evasive action, or worse if under enemy fire. But aircrew other than pilots could be put into dangerous situations when they had to move around in larger aircraft for various reasons, especially if they were flying in turbulence, and had to resort to using temporary attachments to the aircraft structure when opening doors for supply dropping, etc. (very similar to situation in Hercules during supply dropping today), and this of course applied to Hastings, Bristol Freighters, Sunderlands, Devons, etc., in their day. In early days of World War Two, the RNZAF even had at least 3 cases of aircrew falling out of the earlier biplanes, often with open cockpits, under differing circumstances, generally with fatal results.

[Dave Homewood]

I suspected it was Peter Gordon, yes.

I can only imagine he was making a joke in reference to the legislation that made seatbelts in cars mandatory. I am not sure when that was, but I think it was the 1970's?

[chinapilot]

Jul 30, 2022 17:51:14 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

I suspected it was Peter Gordon, yes.

I can only imagine he was making a joke in reference to the legislation that made seatbelts in cars mandatory. I am not sure when that was, but I think it was the 1970's?

Yes - guess he was referring to car seat belts which were made compulsory in 1975 but would have been lobbied for a few years prior.

[angelsonefive]

I think Mr Gordon, a man well clued up on matters aviation as we know, was referring to the shoulder belts that the Airtrainer would have been fitted with.

Non-aerobatic aircraft in NZ were not required to have upper body restraint safety harnesses until about that time.

The fatal crash of Piper Tri-Pacer ZK-BSC at Eltham in August, 1970, when the RH front seat passenger was killed and the pilot suffered a serious head injury in a forced landing, prompted the civil aviation authorities to call for all light aircraft to have a shoulder belt or belts for pilots and passengers.

More info. here aviation-safety.net/wikibase/122536

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Ray, that makes more sense and surely clears up the mystery quip.