Unfastened seatbelt caused Snowbirds crash

[aussiewannabe]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 70010.html

[C]

Oooooh dear. Shows why paying lip service to checks can be fatal. Of course, we don't know in this case if there was a technical failure of the seat straps...

[Canuck.]

STUPID SEATBELTS

[C]

is this legal!!?? shouldnt someone go to jailf or stuff like this?

Well, for a start the pilot would have done up his own seatbelt, so there's a fair possibility it was an "error" (in the loosest possible term) on his part. It's quite possible to fasten harnesses and think they are secure, only to find they are not. It's difficult to see how the belt webbing could fail without being noticed in the preflight checks, and the only other scenario I can think of is that if the seat had just been serviced then it could have been incorrectly assembled - but this would have manifested itself almost immediately, and is unlikely.

I expect it was just a tragic accident.