Only ask for exit row seating if you know you can manipulate the door and exit the aircraft with no delay. It pains me to see people sitting in that row who are going to cause a bottleneck at the door if it is needed.

Maybe the SAR folks on this forum can help me out here. I carry a rescue tool, but I am not sure of the circumstances under which I'd need to cut the belt. When can I expect the lock opening mechanism to fail?

This link was posted earlier:

http://www.thetruthaboutknives.com/2013/...or-box-cutters/

I read the linked article the first time it was posted. My question was probably unclear, so let me try again: what happens in a crash that would prevent the belt release mechanism from working? It seems that unless the lock was damaged, it should still work.

Given the simple and robust construction of aircraft seat belt buckles it seems highly unlikely that it would jam and that you would need to cut your own belt. Probably not impossible, but highly unlikely.

The largest body of relevant experience is probably from auto wrecks. Awhile back ETS had a thread entitled Cutting seat belts-How often?. The responses were interesting. You can read through it at your leisure, but there were a number of responses from ETS members who had decades of experience as EMS providers handling car wrecks. At least one had never had to cut a seat belt. Some had cut one or two in their career. Generally they only had to cut belts when the nature of the wreck blocked access to the buckle, or when undischarged air bags made it dangerous to reach over the victim to the buckle.

My take away is that needing to cut a belt in an aircraft crash is most likely when you are trying to free someone else, when wreckage makes it difficult to access to the buckle on their seatbelt. If wreckage makes it difficult to reach your own seat belt buckle at your waist, you'll probably have trouble getting free without help even if you could manage to cut the belt. Or to put it another way, if you can't even reach your own buckle, what makes you think you can reach your EMT Shears and cut your belt?

That's why my personal focus is on knowing how to unbuckle my own belt instantly without needing to think about it, and on quickly reaching and opening an exit. I'm not suggesting EMT shears (or a knife if TSA would allow it) wouldn't be good to have for other reasons, but it is very unlikely I will need it to escape my own seat belt.

It's also very unlikely you'll need to escape a plane. This entire site is a discussion of unlikely scenarios.

The issue of being able to get to shears is solved by wearing them around your neck on the plane. I've flown with other essential survival supplies around my neck.

The thought of burning alive freaks me out enough to wear, around my neck, something that can cut a belt. A small man bag works too. My Maxpedition Remora swings around to rest comfortably on my lower chest.

Yes but some unlikely scenarios are even more unlikely than others. Only a tiny percentage of us will ever be in a plane crash. And only a tiny percentage of that already tiny group will ever need to cut their seat belt.

The beauty of this site is that we can each choose which of the infinite number of highly unlikely scenarios we wish to be prepared for. Peace of mind is worth a lot. If the risk of not being able to get out of your seat belt freaks you out, then by all means carry your shears close at hand.

Thanks, guys. If I ever survive an air crash, I'll be sure to report my experience here.

You would think that with the fact that autos have had pushbutton belt latches for better than 20 years and that the population (that uses seatbelts) has the muscle memory for those kinds of latches that the aircraft certification agencies would change the belt latches on planes.

The mechanism being different from what everyone knows is kind of like having to turn the handle on the emergency exit clockwise to make it unlatch- very unnatural when reflex action is better.

The current airplane seatbelt latches are just like the ones my father installed in our cars in the 1960's - when cars didn't come with seatbelts.

That's an interesting point about the emergency latch. I'm not sure if it's universally true, but it's interesting nonetheless. Clockwise is more natural for me personally, and I'm right handed. I feel like I would want to scew the latch out of the plane (like pushing out a car door), not into the plane. So, clockwise feels right to me.

Anyway, I'd prefer if the emergency door is slightly UNNATURAL if that un-naturalness prevents just one accidental, or even intentional, opening.