Why seat upright takeoff

It also makes it easier for passengers to assume the brace position, a posture proven to reduce the effect of a collision on the body by leaning forward to avoid secondary impact though the specifics of the pose can vary from country to country, or even airline to airline.

Not so fast. Topics intel. Similarly, ensuring that seats are upright during take-off and landing also cuts the chances that your face will slam into the seat back in front of you during a bumpy landing. Reclined seats simply make it far too difficult for passengers to evacuate a plane quickly and easily, which is why the FAA stepped in and turned the common sense request into law. If there's anything you take away from this background, let it be this: when flight attendants ask you to move your seat up, smile and comply—they're just looking out for you.

In the event of a crash, the whiplash movement of a reclined seat poses a threat to both the passenger sitting in it and the passenger behind it. Plane seats are required to be able to withstand impacts 16 times the force of gravity in a crash, and safety standards like these are widely credited with making plane crashes far more survivable than they used to be.

Plus, putting seats in the upright position makes it significantly easier for the window and middle-seat passengers to exit the row in an emergency. New airplane models have to undergo a mock emergency evacuation before they're cleared to fly to prove that all passengers can get out in 90 seconds or less.