For starters, not all connectors are karabiners (or carabiners, biners or crabs). A karabiner is a specialised shackle with a spring-loaded gate. Over the years other types of connectors have been developed to attach the harness to the glider, such as pin-lock connectors, quick-outs and softlinks. Even maillons rapides (French for quick links) are sometimes used, although we mainly find them between the risers and lines or between the reserve and bridle.

Many current harnesses are equipped with metal karabiners with an autolock gate. That means after you have opened the gate and let go, it closes and locks automatically. It’s the quickest karabiner to use and very safe because you can’t forget to close it. A karabiner with the gate left open is a lot weaker and can fail.
(...)

This feature was published in Cross Country magazine 253