When a plane makes impact with the ground or the water, the curved aluminum alloy of the fuselage helps protect occupants from the blow. Shanahan estimates that 85% of crashes are “quite survivable,” including crash landings, tarmac incidents, and lower-speed crashes during takeoff and landing. “Most people think, ‘If I’m in an airplane crash, I’m going to die.’ And nothing could be further from the truth,” said Dennis Shanahan, a surgeon, pilot, and air crash survivability expert with decades of military and private sector experience.
![cabin wheelchair restraint systems cabin wheelchair restraint systems](https://affdskbmdo.cloudimg.io/v7/_autotransform_/assets/uploads/Auto-Transform-Wheelchair-Disk-Restraints_Hero-2.gif)
Horrific crashes may capture the public imagination, but the majority of airplane accidents are, in fact, survivable. Those narrow, reclining seats have been subject to decades of fierce debate among industry players, regulatory bodies, and experts in crash survivability, all arguing over what design, exactly, best balances the competing needs of cost, weight, and safety. “You’re basically giving disabled people yet another reason to feel like society wants us shut into our homes and doesn’t want us going anywhere,” said Ladau, adding: “It’s time to quit shutting us out of such a ubiquitous mode of travel.”Ī irplane safety standards have a long, fractious history in the United States. And in any event, carving out a place for wheelchairs on commercial aircraft depends on the same complex blend of economics, politics, and physics that underlies every square inch of airplane design.įor disability advocates, however, change cannot come soon enough. The ADA, after all, specifically excludes air travel from the accommodations it prescribes for other forms of public transit. Whether and how soon that might happen, however, is difficult to say.
![cabin wheelchair restraint systems cabin wheelchair restraint systems](https://holymartyrs.net/assets/img/main/product-restraints.jpg)
That discrepancy-along with a growing chorus of advocates arguing that the experiences of wheelchair users like Landau and Burcaw are unacceptable-has spurred a new push to finally make air travel more fair and accessible. But so can wheelchair restraint systems-and in many cases, they are tested to a more exacting standard than your typical airplane seat. It is true that airplane seats can withstand forces several times the force of gravity. “This is why trains or buses, for instance,” the group said, “can accommodate a wider range of options.”īut a closer look at the history and science of airplane-and wheelchair-safety tells a more complicated story.
![cabin wheelchair restraint systems cabin wheelchair restraint systems](https://www.mdpi.com/ijerph/ijerph-19-01633/article_deploy/html/images/ijerph-19-01633-g008.png)
The group went on to explain that such certification is not imposed on other modes of transport. So at the present time, these certified aircraft seats are the only permissible seating for all passengers.” Last year, in response to questions about wheelchair access, a major airline industry group told Aviation Week that “aircraft seats are constructed to meet rigorous safety regulations that include survivability at several times the force of gravity. The explicit rationale behind the regulations involves safety. “It’s very uncomfortable,” she said.Ī new study linking profanity to honesty shows people who curse are more authentic “I’m nowhere near the quote-unquote average person.” At 4’6”, she does not fit the seat easily. “Airplane seats are designed for the quote-unquote average person,” Ladau said. She likens the experience to watching someone walk off with her legs. For some, it is simply impossible.Įmily Ladau, a disability rights activist, writer, and public speaker, does deep-breathing exercises to manage her anxiety as airport staff take her wheelchair away. For many wheelchair users, the experience of flying is stressful, painful, and sometimes humiliating.
![cabin wheelchair restraint systems cabin wheelchair restraint systems](https://www.avtobusi.com/wp-content/uploads/3-404x480.jpg)
Indeed, regulations prohibit passengers from sitting in their own wheelchairs on planes, and, as a result, 29 years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which dramatically increased American wheelchair users’ access to buses, trains, and other essential 21st century infrastructure, airplanes remain stubbornly inaccessible. “When you hear about the injuries and the discomfort and the embarrassment that wheelchair users have faced when flying,” Burcaw said, “it becomes pretty obvious that they’re not being treated in a very humane way with these rules.”