The free peanuts and blankets may have gone by the wayside, but could airbags be a new feature on commercial airliners?
The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday that it plans to hold a public meeting on Tuesday to discuss a study on adding airbags to planes.
The study looked at how effective airbags would be preventing injuries in a survivable airplane crash – but also any “unintended consequences” of having them, say, blow up while passengers take a sip of tomato juice.
"Investigators became aware of several potential issues that could compromise occupant safety associated with the use, adjustment and design of restraint systems," according to the NTSB notice about the meeting.
The independent federal safety group has taken on aircraft safety before the crashes happen, recently saying that babies under age 2 should no longer fly on their parents’ laps. Travelers should instead suck up the cost of an extra ticket and belt in the babies as they would for car ride — in case any plane crash is survivable.