Aircraft seat belts

A few years ago I caught a virgin flight on Australian registration of Vh-vuo a Boeing 737 800.

This is one of the oldest in virgins fleet.


When I checked the seat belt the stitching down the length of the seatbelt was non existent, so the seat belt could be squeezed into a tube. And it was frayed, and the compliance tag was missing on my and the children’s seats.

Prion to leaving the gate, I said to the cabin crew this aircraft is not air worthy!

Cabin crews response was our engineers deemed it safe.

I thought stuff it I need to get home. I went to use the toile mid flight, if didn’t flush and there were turds in the bowl.

Is this even airworthy.

The plane was a piece of junk.

a reply to: robsmith

How bad was the smell for goodness sake?

a reply to: robsmith

Just flew United into Chicago

Seemed okay to be and was on a 737

a reply to: robsmith

Sound like luxury compared to some of the communist era flight I've been on.

I'll see your broken toilet and raise you water running down the inside of the plane and chunks of the ceiling coming down.

Anyone else remember them re using disposable coffee cups, or the copious deaths?

a reply to: scottobereal
From memory it was rank. It smelt out the rear galley.

a reply to: AaarghZombies

Wow that’s shocking. How do the aircraft even takeoff.

Was the water condensation or ice

a reply to: DBCowboy

I like Boeing compared to airbus, sadly any chance of getting on a 747 these days is small.

a reply to: robsmith



What do you want us to do about it? Seems like an issue you should have taken up with the airline at the time. If you were so concerned about it, why did you continue with the flight and wait to say anything until disembarking the aircraft?

They didn't start flying the -800s until around 2010 or so, so if this were a few years ago, the aircraft would not have been very old. Hell, if it happened yesterday the aircraft would not have been very old.

a reply to: robsmith

Is this your Plane?
www.airfleets.net...

Boeing 737 NG / Max - MSN 36601 - VH-VUO
Airline Virgin Australia

Status : Active
Registration : VH-VUO

Airline Virgin Australia

    Country : Australia
    Date : 2011 -
    Codes: VA DJ VOZ
    Callsign : Velocity
    Web site : www.virginaustralia.com...

    General information & flightlog

Serial number36601 LN:2525Type737-8FEFirst flight date11/02/2008Test registrationPlane age14.7 yearsSeat configurationHex code7C6D2E 

Flights recordedVA267MEL->CBR30/11/21VOZ469PER->BNE24/02/20VA287MEL->CBR29/03/19See details - Add a flight

Engines 2 x CFMI CFM56-7B26

Edit: Currently

a reply to: robsmith

Seatbelts not having their tags, or the stitching being frayed don’t make an aircraft not airworthy. Neither does a lav problem. The seat may be considered inop, but that’s it.

a reply to: robsmith

So you think a frayed seatbelt and a floater are determining factors in a planes airworthiness?

Last time I flew there was a crack on the inner window. The woman who found it freaked out. I had the aisle seat in her row. She got the Flight Attendant and refused to sit there, so they moved her to a different seat. The people in the row behind us decides that they didn't want to sit there either, so they were moved. I moved to the middle seat, put the arm rests up and leaned the seat back. I was in heaven. The FA asked if I was OK there and I told her no problem. Most comfortable flight I've ever had.

originally posted by: robsmith
a reply to: AaarghZombies

Wow that’s shocking. How do the aircraft even takeoff.

Was the water condensation or ice

It was running water, on the inside of the aircraft. So probably not ice. We weren't high enough at that time to have external icing.

a reply to: AaarghZombies

Probably a bad water feed line. Boeing switched from metal lines to plastic ones in the late 80's.

Meh, seat belts are really only there to make your body easier to identify in a crash.

Oh D-4? That's Bob Smith.

At that point, if it didn't hold, who cares. lol

Ive seen planes fly with much much more serious airframe defects...

a reply to: JIMC5499

Yeah, do they wanna live forever?

My father recollected a trip that he took with Egypt Air, or whatever. The seat was not fixed to the plane.

You should treat life as an adventure, and laugh at the things that don't kill you.

a reply to: robsmith

the seat its self is going to save you more than the belt, don't get me wrong ill take all i can get.


but unless you are super lucky and not just falling out of the sky and can do a skid approach(very low fuel, hopefully) you MIGHT live if you don't explode into a fireball

lets say you lived, your back and legs are likely shattered, you are likely on fire or have been burned on everything exposed.


the aircraft wreckage is on fire and no one around you is in better shape, how do you get out in time?

but someone is worried about a toilet

originally posted by: PapagiorgioCZ
a reply to: JIMC5499

Yeah, do they wanna live forever?

The inner panel is a plexiglass shield of no structural value. The outer window takes the changes in pressure. If it was cracked I wouldn't have been on the plane.

It was explained to them, but, they didn't buy it.

By the way I used to be an aircraft mechanic and have put windows in and taken them out of airliners.