to make a long story short a buddy of mine crashed his SS when a battery terminal came loose and shut the whole car down. He hit a wall doing 60 on the highway but his airbags didn't deploy. My question is, do you need some electrical power for the airbags to go off? I wouldn't think so but just wanted to make sure.

 

The sensors for the airbags are in the front bumper. If he didn't go nose first into the wall they may not have.

 

They need current to deploy. But the system retains enough power for deployment within the circuit for ~ 15 minutes (?) after battery power is disconnected.
This is why the manuals tell you to wait that long (not sure on the exact time frame) before working on the SRS system.

 

There are also two sensors (together) that need to be triggered for deployment. Like stated above, if he didnt hit the wall head on, the sensor that recognizes a sudden halt in movement didnt trigger allowing the airbags not to deploy. The impact did probably trigger the impact sensor, which basically recognizes that the vehicle has been in some kind of collision. Two different sensors though.