Is it true that the "brace" position when an airplane is about to crash was really meant to kill passengers?

Question

Is it true, because I heard that in that position (with your head on the back of the seat ahead) when the airplane crash lands the impact could severely snap your neck resulting in death.

Is it true that it was made because the aircraft companies would rather pay for an accidental death claim rather than for rehabilitation of the injured because it would be cheaper?

Answer 1

Mythbusters tested it and proved that it is actually made to help you.

Answer 2

That is nonsense. That position supports your spine, lowers the body's center of gravity (so you don't flail around), and gets your head low to keep you from being hit in the face by debris (flying debris and luggage can be moving fast enough to kill you.) When your body is curled up, you're presenting less of yourself to harm. Sitting up straight is just a really bad idea. Such a conspiracy is incredibly unlikely. The amount of money lost to settlements is nothing compared to the cost of the aircraft and loss in revenue due to people choosing other airlines, not to mention the loss in investor confidence. Companies lose huge money in markets after major accidents. Trying to kill passengers to avoid paying such a comparatively small amount of money is insane.

*EDIT* The only way for that to snap your neck is for the plane to stop in an instant, driving you into the seat in front. Even if that were to happen, the seat in front would bend forward, giving you room. None of that matters, as such a dramatic deceleration would tear the plane apart. Most accidents involve more gradual deceleration, with impacts spread out over more time. For instance, skipping waves on a water ditching, or skidding on the ground during a crash landing. In such a case, flying debris is a bigger issue than sudden impact. These procedures are designed to protect you. All of the other stories are urban legends.

Answer 3

This is a popular urban myth.

From practical demonstrations I have seen, this position actually is protective and yields the greatest survivability to aircraft occupants.

Answer 4

This position-

lowers your center of gravity, reducing loads on the seat and you, so the seat is less likely to fail

ensures the seat belt is secure across the pelvic bone where it belongs instead of high on your abdomen

puts crash decelerations along your body instead of snapping your head forward.

In high speed videos of aircraft crash tests performed with actual, remote controlled, jet airplanes, the seats move quite a bit, so heads do not hit the seat in front hard AT ALL.... the exception is backward facing bulkhead mounted attendant seats which have to be designed for head injury criteria.

I don't like to be harsh, but you  insult the thousands of dedicated engineers and technicians at Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier, and Embraer with this question.  Safety is ALWAYS job one in the commercial aircraft injury.  These people would never intentionally design an airplane feature to allow injury.  And the regulators at the FAA and EASA would never allow it anyway- and seats must be certified by TEST so the truth can't be hidden.

There is loads of good information on the FAA website.  A few samples below.

§ 25.785   Seats, berths, safety belts, and harnesses.

(a) A seat (or berth for a nonambulant person) must be provided for each occupant who has reached his or her second birthday.

(b) Each seat, berth, safety belt, harness, and adjacent part of the airplane at each station designated as occupiable during takeoff and landing must be designed so that a person making proper use of these facilities will not suffer serious injury in an emergency landing as a result of the inertia forces specified in §§25.561 and 25.562.

(c) Each seat or berth must be approved.

(d) Each occupant of a seat that makes more than an 18-degree angle with the vertical plane containing the airplane centerline must be protected from head injury by a safety belt and an energy absorbing rest that will support the arms, shoulders, head, and spine, or by a safety belt and shoulder harness that will prevent the head from contacting any injurious object. Each occupant of any other seat must be protected from head injury by a safety belt and, as appropriate to the type, location, and angle of facing of each seat, by one or more of the following:

(1) A shoulder harness that will prevent the head from contacting any injurious object.

(2) The elimination of any injurious object within striking radius of the head.

(3) An energy absorbing rest that will support the arms, shoulders, head, and spine.

(e) Each berth must be designed so that the forward part has a padded end board, canvas diaphragm, or equivalent means, that can withstand the static load reaction of the occupant when subjected to the forward inertia force specified in §25.561. Berths must be free from corners and protuberances likely to cause injury to a person occupying the berth during emergency conditions.

(f) Each seat or berth, and its supporting structure, and each safety belt or harness and its anchorage must be designed for an occupant weight of 170 pounds, considering the maximum load factors, inertia forces, and reactions among the occupant, seat, safety belt, and harness for each relevant flight and ground load condition (including the emergency landing conditions prescribed in §25.561). In addition—

(1) The structural analysis and testing of the seats, berths, and their supporting structures may be determined by assuming that the critical load in the forward, sideward, downward, upward, and rearward directions (as determined from the prescribed flight, ground, and emergency landing conditions) acts separately or using selected combinations of loads if the required strength in each specified direction is substantiated. The forward load factor need not be applied to safety belts for berths.

(2) Each pilot seat must be designed for the reactions resulting from the application of the pilot forces prescribed in §25.395.

(3) The inertia forces specified in §25.561 must be multiplied by a factor of 1.33 (instead of the fitting factor prescribed in §25.625) in determining the strength of the attachment of each seat to the structure and each belt or harness to the seat or structure.

(i) Each safety belt must be equipped with a metal to metal latching device.

(k) Each projecting object that would injure persons seated or moving about the airplane in normal flight must be padded.

[Amdt. 25–72, 55 FR 29780, July 20, 1990, as amended by Amdt. 25–88, 61 FR 57956, Nov. 8, 1996]

Answer 5

no, they tested it on mythbusters. But the safest seat is the flight attendants that is facing the back of the airplane when u sit. I think it also said that 1st class seat's are safer than coach because they have more room to bend down and grab ur ankles

Answer 6

i dont know about the death idea but . i heard

of a friend whos in the r.a.f that the head

between the knees idea is to protect your teeth

during a crash. so they can id you from your

dental records .

Answer 7

quite a position to take. Still it is better than burning to death.