They have seatbelts, but for the most of the flight they are unused - you only need to buckle in during takeoff, landing, and if when encountering turbulence.

I guess there wasn't enough time to get all the passengers to fasten their seatbelts before the collision?

[–] 18107@aussie.zone 15 points 2 days ago

I wonder if you've ever listened to the part of the safety briefing before every flight where they instruct you to keep the seatbelt fastened throughout the entire flight.

Judging by the number of clicks I hear when the seatbelt light turns off, I'd say most people don't.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

You should always have the belt on unless you are standing up for some reason. This story is exactly why.

[–] rollerbang@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Where I fly they also always advise to remain fastener regardless of no immediate warnigs. Exactly for situations like this - and others.

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 2 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Yeah, but people are still going to be using the bathrooms and such, even if you assume everyone actually obeys the rules

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Pour one out for the poor fella who finally got his turn to poop just before this happened.

[–] dev_null@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Of course, but it should be the 2-4 people who are actively going somewhere / in the bathroom, everyone else should have their seatbelt on.

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

And airplanes shouldn't be in each other's airspace

I don't know what you're trying to say, the airplanes nearly running into each other is the clear problem

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Check out John Oliver's take on air traffic control on LWT

I was a kid when Reagan fired all the striking air traffic controllers. It turns out it takes a long time to train them, so we haven't recovered from that one incident. It also means all ATCs are overworked, still underpaid and using outdated hardware and methods.

Air travel was screwed even before Trump defunded the FAA.

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Fair, but it has gotten very noticably worse based on Trump's deregulation catching up on the aircrafts and the latest round of forcing out air traffic control

Also, I didn't know you could just say "all pronouns". I like that a lot, I'm really uncomfortable putting myself in boxes and that describes my preferences very succinctly

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Yes, whereas prior congresses and presidencies squeezed regulatory agencies and let them get captured, Trump is just taking a wrecking ball to them. What we're going through now really can't be compared to what happened before, including during Reagan's term and George W. Bush.

Re: Pronouns, TBH I was in theater as a kid and TTRPGs as a teen and young adult, so it was super easy to get comfortable whatever pronouns suited my character. And yeah, embraced my enby status as I got past my forties.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

There are things you can control and things you can't. I can't keep the planes out of each other's airspace, but I can keep my seat belt on.

That would be more insightful if I wasn't a pilot...

Tap for spoiler

I'm not.

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, that'll keep you from getting slammed on the ceiling...in a situation that should never, ever happen. Which I'd over a midair collision, in which case you're just screwed no matter what you do

I don't blame the pilot either, they did their job properly. It was the military that failed to coordinate with the civilian air control tower, which also could have been avoided if the civilian tower had radar

What should you do? Demand better. Not think "I would have been fine, they must've been stupid"

You can't protect against every freak event, what you can do is be one drop in the wave that demands competence from our government

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

There are certainly things that can be done better. My instance should give an idea about how much my government can do about this problem. That said, just like in a car, there is no good reason you shouldn't be wearing your seat belt most of the time. And there are plenty of situations they can't fix, such as clear-air turbulence. But the seat belt still helps.

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It applies to everyone - you've had an event this year too. I should have said our governments

Air traffic control is just not an individual thing. Not even an individual country thing.

And I'm aware of unexpected turbulence...I just don't see getting banged about that big a deal. Shit happens. Wrong place, wrong time... Sure, put on your seatbelt when you're sitting down, but even if you don't you're probably not going to die from it

But planes nearly colliding? Actually colliding? That should never happen... It's a 3D arena, the sky is huge. Planes should neither fall apart nor be anywhere near each other without coordination

We made air travel very safe with old technology, for a long time too. This is a very recent problem, and totally unacceptable

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And I'm aware of unexpected turbulence...I just don't see getting banged about that big a deal. Shit happens. Wrong place, wrong time... Sure, put on your seatbelt when you're sitting down, but even if you don't you're probably not going to die from it

“J. E. Littlewood, a mathematician at Cambridge University, wrote about the law of truly large numbers in his 1986 book, "Littlewood's Miscellany." He said the average person is alert for about eight hours every day, and something happens to the average person about once a second. At this rate, you will experience 1 million events every thirty-five days. This means when you say the chances of something happening are one in a million, it also means about once a month. The monthly miracle is called Littlewood's Law.” - David McRaney

This is why people build houses in flood zones. What are the odds this will affect me? And every year, people gamble with those one in a million odds, and someone loses. Then their friends console each other at the funeral that it was a freak accident and who could have predicted it would happen? And why were they in that position? Because people don't have an intuitive grasp of statistics, particularly low probability and high frequency, and what the are odds it will happen to them. But it's happening to someone all the time, and much more likely to the one who says, "Well, it probably won't be me."

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't think you get what I'm saying.

If you build your house in a flood zone... Well, I feel for you. That sucks, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it

If the state is cutting taxes to incentize building in a flood plain (which is a thing that has happened), in going to be very upset

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

Okay, I see what you're saying there. I don't agree with the stance for the first part, but that's a personal choice. After all, the government could not only not incentivize building in a flood zone, they could make it illegal.

[–] yamper@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

because of a few exception cases this is never going to work

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

At any time, you can expect at least 2-6 people out of their seats if the fasten seatbelts sign isn't on. But I don't really care about that part, shit happens

Planes shouldn't be dodging each other in the first place... That's the actual problem here. I don't blame the pilot either, they avoided a collision, so as far as I'm concerned they did what they had to do

The situation itself never should have happened

[–] yamper@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

i dont even know what youre trying to state or argue. seatbelts should be worn by all seated passengers at all times to mitigate risk of injury in case something that shouldn't happen does end up happening. obviously there are exceptions like when people need to piss and shit.

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 1 points 2 days ago

No duh. I don't care if a few people got slammed into the ceiling

I care that two planes almost collided and killed everyone

Why even consider the seat belts? They're not the real issue here