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Captain reported his five point harness system malfunctioned; trapping him in his seat.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1752843 |
| Time | |
| Date | 202007 |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Daylight |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Cruise |
| Route In Use | Vectors |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Component | |
| Aircraft Component | Flight Crew Harness |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Pilot Flying Captain |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 56 Flight Crew Total 13297 Flight Crew Type 3928 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy |
Narrative:
Enroute ZZZ-ZZZ1; the five point connector popped out of place and could not be twisted to allow the seat belt to be removed. This essentially trapped the captain in his seat if the seat belt continued to be used. We had never; in xx+ years of aviation; heard of this failure. Last time I had experienced this was in a dunk tank in navy flight school; where I technically 'drowned.' I did connect the waist belt through the shoulder harness connect points; where the quick release actually worked; so I was able to rig a partial system. There is no information on what to do in this situation; nor after a consult with the chief pilot was there any company support. If this is a more common occurrence than I am aware; some information should be disseminated to the pilots. But in all likelihood if not; the chief pilot; maintenance; and other resources in headquarters should be able to get together in an expeditious fashion and at least come up with some ideas in the last 90 minutes of a flight. Either way; the actions resulted in SOP violations and use of emergency authority to circumvent the procedures using the captain's judgement of least risk in the situation.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: Captain reported his five point harness system malfunctioned; trapping him in his seat.
Narrative: Enroute ZZZ-ZZZ1; the five point connector popped out of place and could not be twisted to allow the seat belt to be removed. This essentially trapped the Captain in his seat if the seat belt continued to be used. We had never; in XX+ years of aviation; heard of this failure. Last time I had experienced this was in a dunk tank in Navy flight school; where I technically 'drowned.' I did connect the waist belt through the shoulder harness connect points; where the quick release actually worked; so I was able to rig a partial system. There is no information on what to do in this situation; nor after a consult with the Chief Pilot was there any company support. If this is a more common occurrence than I am aware; some information should be disseminated to the pilots. But in all likelihood if not; the Chief Pilot; Maintenance; and other resources in headquarters should be able to get together in an expeditious fashion and at least come up with some ideas in the last 90 minutes of a flight. Either way; the actions resulted in SOP violations and use of emergency authority to circumvent the procedures using the Captain's judgement of least risk in the situation.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.