§ 27.785 - Seats, berths, litters, safety belts, and harnesses.

§ 27.785 Seats, berths, litters, safety belts, and harnesses.

(a) Each seat, safety belt, harness, and adjacent part of the rotorcraft at each station designated for occupancy during takeoff and landing must be free of potentially injurious objects, sharp edges, protuberances, and hard surfaces and must be designed so that a person making proper use of these facilities will not suffer serious injury in an emergency landing as a result of the static inertial load factors specified in § 27.561(b) and dynamic conditions specified in § 27.562.

(b) Each occupant must be protected from serious head injury by a safety belt plus a shoulder harness that will prevent the head from contacting any injurious object except as provided for in § 27.562(c)(5). A shoulder harness (upper torso restraint), in combination with the safety belt, constitutes a torso restraint system as described in TSO-C114.

(c) Each occupant's seat must have a combined safety belt and shoulder harness with a single-point release. Each pilot's combined safety belt and shoulder harness must allow each pilot when seated with safety belt and shoulder harness fastened to perform all functions necessary for flight operations. There must be a means to secure belts and harnesses, when not in use, to prevent interference with the operation of the rotorcraft and with rapid egress in an emergency.

(d) If seat backs do not have a firm handhold, there must be hand grips or rails along each aisle to enable the occupants to steady themselves while using the aisle in moderately rough air.

(e) Each projecting object that could injure persons seated or moving about in the rotorcraft in normal flight must be padded.

(f) Each seat and its supporting structure must be designed for an occupant weight of at least 170 pounds considering the maximum load factors, inertial forces, and reactions between occupant, seat, and safety belt or harness corresponding with the applicable flight and ground load conditions, including the emergency landing conditions of § 27.561(b). In addition -

(1) Each pilot seat must be designed for the reactions resulting from the application of the pilot forces prescribed in § 27.397; and

(2) The inertial forces prescribed in § 27.561(b) must be multiplied by a factor of 1.33 in determining the strength of the attachment of -

(i) Each seat to the structure; and

(ii) Each safety belt or harness to the seat or structure.

(g) When the safety belt and shoulder harness are combined, the rated strength of the safety belt and shoulder harness may not be less than that corresponding to the inertial forces specified in § 27.561(b), considering the occupant weight of at least 170 pounds, considering the dimensional characteristics of the restraint system installation, and using a distribution of at least a 60-percent load to the safety belt and at least a 40-percent load to the shoulder harness. If the safety belt is capable of being used without the shoulder harness, the inertial forces specified must be met by the safety belt alone.

(h) When a headrest is used, the headrest and its supporting structure must be designed to resist the inertia forces specified in § 27.561, with a 1.33 fitting factor and a head weight of at least 13 pounds.

(i) Each seating device system includes the device such as the seat, the cushions, the occupant restraint system, and attachment devices.

(j) Each seating device system may use design features such as crushing or separation of certain parts of the seats to reduce occupant loads for the emergency landing dynamic conditions of § 27.562; otherwise, the system must remain intact and must not interfere with rapid evacuation of the rotorcraft.

(k) For the purposes of this section, a litter is defined as a device designed to carry a nonambulatory person, primarily in a recumbent position, into and on the rotorcraft. Each berth or litter must be designed to withstand the load reaction of an occupant weight of at least 170 pounds when the occupant is subjected to the forward inertial factors specified in § 27.561(b). A berth or litter installed within 15° or less of the longitudinal axis of the rotorcraft must be provided with a padded end-board, cloth diaphram, or equivalent means that can withstand the forward load reaction. A berth or litter oriented greater than 15° with the longitudinal axis of the rotorcraft must be equipped with appropriate restraints, such as straps or safety belts, to withstand the forward load reaction. In addition -

(1) The berth or litter must have a restraint system and must not have corners or other protuberances likely to cause serious injury to a person occupying it during emergency landing conditions; and

(2) The berth or litter attachment and the occupant restraint system attachments to the structure must be designed to withstand the critical loads resulting from flight and ground load conditions and from the conditions prescribed in § 27.561(b). The fitting factor required by § 27.625(d) shall be applied.

[Amdt. 27-21, 49 FR 44434, Nov. 6, 1984, as amended by Amdt. 27-25, 54 FR 47319, Nov. 13, 1989; Amdt. 27-35, 63 FR 43285, Aug. 12, 1998]