Always Wear Your Seat Belt on Airplanes

I'm a pilot for a living. I never take my seat belt off in flight unless I'm getting up for a very specific reason. Do you know how much energy is wrapped up in the airplane at those kinds of speeds? There have been people that have been straight up killed because they hit clear air turbulence in flight. Even if you don't get killed it could ruin your day.

Seriously, you really want to wear your seat belt, and wear it properly. I've been in turbulence in little airplanes so bad that I thought the wings were going to come off. I've been thrown to 135° of bank in light aircraft. Hell, just commuting to work at my old job in Juneau once I saw turbulence so bad the FAs never got out of their seat on the flight and all the masks fell while we were on approach.

Egregious turbulence is pretty uncommon up in the flight levels where the airlines usually cruise, but you never know what could happen. You know how much your ass gets kicked if you hit a speed-bump in your car going too fast? Imagine hitting that same speed-bump at 80% the speed of sound.

Seriously, wear your seat belt. Not only is safe, but it's more polite than the alternative. Do you know how much paperwork there is if you get killed because you didn't wear your seat belt? The NTSB would be getting involved, There'd be a massive investigation by the FAA to see if any procedure wasn't followed - not to mention the lawsuits.

If you get killed for not wearing your seat belt, you traumatize the people next to you and vastly inconvenience a whole host of other people.

Don't be a dick, wear your seat belt.

SOURCE