Larry Dighera wrote:
On 27 Feb 2005 20:34:51 -0800, wrote in
.com::

his seat belt and shoulder harness failed

Has there been any investigation into why that occurred? Is
inspection of the belts a required part of the annual inspection?
Are
they finite life parts? Were they factory installed? It sounds like
he'd have been okay if the belts didn't fail.

Larry
I talked with another ag pilot friend who visited the site and he spoke
to a lot of people. The aircraft hit on mud and buried the gear which
caused it to stop in about 30' from 100mph. I have no idea what the
equipment is ultimately fail rated at but I seem to recall its 30 pos G
or more.
It was said there was a maintenance problem too and you can bet all
factors will be looked at carefully before its decided to go to court
or not.
I can't speculate too much and that would be an exercise in futility
not being on the site to do a personal investigation.
Thanks to all of you for your condolences and I'll pass them on to his
young daughters.