Pilot strikes head on cockpit overhead during turbulent approach to KVNY resulting in hospitalization.
Aren’t SEATBELTS part of every landing checklist? If the pilot was properly restrained, I don’t see how this could’ve happened…
I can think of two possibilities:
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Perhaps the pilot was restrained but something else in the cockpit was not.
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Perhaps something needed (chart, etc) fell out of reach and the pilot unlached to retrieve it.
Unless you have yourself strapped in like your doing aerobatics (think of the ramper standing on your shoulders while he cinches the belts) it’s very easy to hit your head. I’m too lazy to read the article, but you’d be surprised how little room there is in the front seat of lots of bizjets. Easpecially the narrower types like the smaller lears and the beechjet, the cockpits are very tiny and the ceiling slopes inward making it quite easy to wack your head. Also, the shoulder harnesses are usually inertia type reels, hso they’re not always locked in. Also #2, stop what your doing…yeah you…right now…and then sit straight up, way up. You probably just gained 3 or 4 inches, and your hips (think lap belt) never moved a bit.
My head used to rest on the ceiling in the Lear 25, 31, and 35. So an injury isn’t much of a surprise.