We’ve long urged aircraft owners to retrofit shoulder harnesses for all seats of their airplanes if at all possible. The simple reason is that a restraint system that keeps your head and upper torso from smacking into the instrument panel or seat in front of you during an accident sequence is the single most effective mod you can make to your airplane to radically increase the chance of everyone aboard surviving an accident.
As technology has improved, we’re now strong advocates of a system that goes further to protect occupants during an impact—the airbag seatbelt from AmSafe (www.amsafe.com), a Phoenix, Arizona, manufacturer that specializes in occupant protection testing and products for cars and aircraft.