Why You Must Keep Your Airplane Seat Upright During Takeoff and Landing

This is why the airplane rule is so important.

Frequent fliers, you know the routine. As your plane begins its final approach, flight attendants will walk through the aisles making sure seats are in the upright position—even if you’re fast asleep. But why do you need to put your seat upright for takeoff and landing? Technically, it’s the law.

According to part 121 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, “no [air carrier] may take off or land an airplane unless each passenger seat back is in the upright position.”

The reason this seemingly insignificant task is written into federal law is simple: It’s for safety. “In the upright position, the seat is locked and most robust to withstand any force from a potential impact,” says former pilot Hans Mast, now a travel agent with Golden Rule Travel. When a seat is reclined, it’s not locked into place, and a sudden stop could cause the seat to lurch forward, catapulting its occupant. Conversely, acceleration could propel the seat backward. “The airplane’s inertia can change the seatback’s angle, which could potentially crush the knees of the passenger who is sitting directly behind that seat,” notes former pilot Dan Bubb, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. This situation serves as a reminder of the importance of always ensuring your safety by wearing a seatbelt.

“It also ensures that the path to the aisle remains as unobstructed as possible, facilitating a more efficient evacuation if necessary,” Mast adds. That’s why seats around emergency exits have limited to no recline. In the event of an emergency, the person in the seat could easily forget or be unable to move the seat upright. “If a seat is reclined, it could slow down the person in the seat behind trying to exit during an emergency,” explains Montreal-based flight attendant Steve Daniel. Moreover, in an emergency, every second counts.

Takeoff and landing are the most dangerous phases of flight. According to an Airbus study, about 75 percent of worldwide accidents involving Airbus aircraft, both fatal and non-fatal, in the last 20 years have occurred during takeoff, approach, or landing. “Approach and landing are highly complex flight phases which place significant demands on the crew in terms of navigation, aircraft configuration changes, communication with air traffic control, congested airspace, and degraded weather conditions,” states Airbus in the study. “This combination of high workload and the increased potential for unanticipated events can create a complex interplay of contributing factors, which may lead to an accident.”

Boeing also found takeoff, climb, final approach, and landing to be the most dangerous phases of flight. Its most recent study, spanning 2011 to 2022, reports that 67 percent of worldwide fatal accidents involving Boeing aircraft occurred during those phases.

Beyond returning your seat to the upright position during takeoff and landing, flight attendants will also ask you to close and lock your tray table, ensure all bags are stowed beneath the seat in front of you or in the overhead compartment, and retract any extendable in-flight entertainment screens (the ones that come out of the armrest in the bulkhead and sometimes in the exit rows). Again, this is all for safety: “Safety is a symphony of many little things that, together, can make a huge difference,” says Daniel.