Some Airlines to Begin Adding First-Class Airbags in the Fall

Here's a crazy idea: come October 27, some airlines will begin adding airbags. On the surface, this seems pretty logical; after all, airbags have proven themselves as a beneficial safety feature in cars and, hey, who wouldn't like to feel a little bit safer when traveling 30,000 feet above the ground?

Of course, as always with airlines, there's a catch. Or two.

Starting this fall, all new airplanes will be required to have seats that will stay in place when subjected to stresses up to 16 times the force of gravity. The old seats had to meet stresses of only nine times the force of gravity. And, in a safety measure borrowed from automobiles, some seats will be equipped with air bags.

[...] The new rules have taken effect gradually. Airplane models introduced after 1988 were required to have the new seats, known as “16g” seats. So planes like the Boeing 777 and the swarm of new regional jets all have them. But older models that were still in production were not required to have the seats.

Of course, that's not the best catch of all, though! What's not mentioned in my selection of blockquotes from the Times article is that these airbags are going to be -- if I understand everything correctly -- implemented in first-class seats only.

Which is awesome, obviously. Why? Because people with more money deserve to be safer than anyone else. Or, alternately, not at all -- the really impressive thing would be for the airlines to just pony up and start making all the seats in all the airlines more safe ... since, you know, everyone's supposed to be equal and what-not.

And don't get me wrong -- I understand the inherent problem here: airbags in airplanes aren't going to keep people from dying 90% of the time. When you crash from six miles in the air, you die most of the time, regardless of an inflatable bag opening up in your face. But in terms of skids off the runway and "smaller" crashes, this is a fantastic idea. It's just too bad it won't help anyone but the rich people.