Washington – A federal advisory panel recommended steps Wednesday that could end the practice of having very young children in their parents’ laps when flying.
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The Federal Aviation Administration has the final say on regulations governing the airline industry, but a 19-member advisory panel said the federal agency should look at whether it would be safer to have children belted into their own seats instead of being in their parents’ laps. Putting children into their own seats or using child seats requires the purchase of an extra ticket at most airlines.
The recommendation was among 23 items identified by the panel, appointed a year ago by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to find ways to bolster the chronically ailing airline industry and fix some of its more pressing problems. It also called for government aid to help airlines equip planes for a new air traffic control system, among other issues at the top of the industry’s wish list.
“I guarantee you that this report and these recommendations will not sit on a shelf,” LaHood said after receiving the panel’s recommendations at a meeting at the Transportation Department.
The panel urged the FAA to update its economic and safety data on families traveling with small children, including incidents involving injuries and deaths, and then decide whether to issue new regulations regarding whether children should be allowed to continue to travel in their parents’ laps or whether they should be belted into their seat.
Safety advocates say small children run a much greater risk of being injured or killed in a crash or by air turbulence if they are held in parents’ laps.
The FAA has resisted requiring the use of child seats or other means to secure children in their own seats. The agency says its research shows families will choose to drive instead of fly because of the expense of buying extra tickets. Agency officials say that increases the danger to children since a fatal accident is more likely to happen on the road than in the air.
But some of the agency’s research dates back 15 years and may not account for the availability of low-cost air carriers, said Bill McGee, a consumer advocate on the panel.
“There is a question about whether the data that supports this is correct anymore,” McGee said.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman said the recommendation doesn’t go far enough.
“We would have preferred to see the FAA be mandated to require that every person including our youngest children be restrained appropriately for their age and size,” she said in a statement. “The era of the lap child on airplanes should come to an end.”
The panel also wants the government to help aircraft owners pay for cockpit equipment that is necessary to effectively use the new air traffic control system FAA is in the process of putting in place. The new system is based on satellite technology rather than World War II-era radar technology. The recommendation suggests a menu of financial options, including loans and grants. Planes with the equipment on board would get preference for the best takeoff and landing slots.
FAA anticipates spending $15 billion to $22 billion on the NextGen program before it’s completed some time after 2020. The agency’s plans call for airlines to spend an additional $14 billion to $20 billion to install equipment in their planes.
Another recommendation urges airlines clearly inform passengers when buying tickets that one or more legs of the flight will be operated by another airline. About half the U.S. domestic airline flights are operated by regional carriers who often operate under names similar to their larger partners. Their planes are even painted in the same colors as the major carriers
The transition from major carrier to regional airline partner is so seamless from the ticketing online to the boarding gate that most passengers don’t realize that it’s not all one airline, McGee said.
The safety of regional air carriers became an issue last year when a Continental Connection flight crashed near Buffalo, N.Y., killing 50 people. The flight was operated by regional carrier Colgan Air for Continental Airlines. Passengers bought their tickets through Continental, but Colgan was responsible for the hiring and training of the pilots and the maintenance of the plane.
One politically sensitive proposal calls for a re-examination of government subsidies of commercial air service to smaller destinations. The Essential Air Service program has strong support among lawmakers from rural states, but critics say there are too few benefits for its $200 million annual cost.
Any parent who would not pay extra for their children to fly separately in a safe seat rather than on the lap is mamash an idiot or deliberately looking to put the child at risk…The nareshkeit that we have heard before that such a rule is “unfair” to large heimeshe families with many babies is beyond stupidity. If they cannot afford to buy a seat, don’t put the yinglach and others on the plane at risk by flying. Stay home until you can afford to buy the seat or the kids get older and you HAVE TO buy them a seat.
Calm down. If the plane crashes, everyone’s dead anyway. Paying an extra $500 for a 2 yr old is ridiculous. At most they should charge $50.
It seems to me that the recommendation that children be strapped into age appropriate restraint while flying is based solely on intuition, not on hard data, I.E. “of course a child riding in an approved baby seat is safer than one riding his or her parent’s lap!”
How often are unrestrained children injured by turbulance vs restained children? How many children perished (R”L) in plane crashes who would have survived if belted in? Since the major cause of fatality in air crashes is fire after impact. Wouldn’t an unrestrained child be quicker to evacuate than one who has to be extracted from a baby seat?
The best data available indicate that a two-year old flying his mother’s lap from New York to Miami is safer that the same child in an approved baby seat driving the same route.
I total y agree with number 3. It’s not like there are cases of children who didn’t survive an airplane crash because they weren’t wearing a seatbelt. And to number 1 if you want to shell out the extra unnecessary cash by all means, but don’t try to make it law and force this on everyone else.
Families who can no longer afford to purchase airplane tickets for their children will now choose to drive to their destination, and driving is inherently less safe than air travel.
I agree with #5 . #3 doesn’t know what he/she is talking about. Most airplane crashes are survivable, absent a fire. 50 years ago, today, when United Airlines Flt. 826, struck Sterling Place and 7th Avenue in Brooklyn, at about 200 knots, there were reports from eyewitnesses that passengers survived the impact, as they saw them moving inside the United DC-8 jet. However, because of the resulting explosion and fire, they were doomed, as they could not be extricated.
do they take body scans and frisk two year olds now too?
I believe that there is a story of a plane crash in the ’50s in which the only survivor was a young toddler, because he fell out of the plane during its decent and got caught by his diaper in a tree. I think he is still alive a frum today.
unless airplanes change the seat dimensions to fit all standard car seat and create appropriate latch systems and/or seatbelt upgrades – there is no point to this conversation as airplanes have not conducted crash tests as cars have to determine if they may be safer in parents laps or child restrained seats. In addition. there are some international airlines that offer a harness to belt child to parent in the seat. This item can also be purchased by anyone and it pretty much turns the parent into a car seat for the baby. They need to conduct a study before decisions are made and quite honestly, these days everyone in the airline industry including FAA has something to gain by coming up with anything that would make more money.
Also – no one on an airplane is REQUIRED to be belted in at all times. Have you seen children over 2 who require their own seat belted at all times. So if a child under 2 is now required to have their own seat, who is to say something G-d forbid won’t happen when Mom is nursing that child or the child needs to walk around for a bit or the child is taken to a bathroom. This certainly does not guarantee anything.
# 10 is absolutely correct; I am that baby and it was a huggies pamper. I am frum and each Purim I make huge seudas hodaah for that nais and wear a diaper to commemorate the event!
This seems like a move which will lessen the chance of a child becoming a “projectile” during sudden deceleration. One wonders when school buses will be required to have seat belts for children.
Unless they are going to test a mother’s strength protecting her baby on her, during an emergency, then I will believe they are doing this for money. For someone who says, just pay the extra money. A. It cost more than 500 when you have more than 1 child. What do you want people to do, take out a loan?
A few weeks back VIN ran a story about people complaining about crying babies on airplanes and how the y should make separate sections on the planes..
Well this is the solution they came up with, make it impossible for children to fly.
Folks, it really doesn’t matter what we all think. Don’t you realize that? When they want to make new regulations (for example, the patdowns and body scanners) no one cared that 75% of Americans didn’t want them. They’re just out to make the $$
Any scientists in the house? I’m looking to invent a breathable suitcase complete with an oxygen source…
Let me explain: it all boils down to $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
who are they kidding?????