ANN/THE STAR – The crash landing of a Delta Air Lines flight in Toronto recently underscored the possible risks of flying with a young child sitting on an adult’s lap. The plane flipped over, making it very challenging to hold onto a baby.
Authorities haven’t said whether the 18-month-old child who was injured in the crash was seated on a parent’s lap. All 21 people who were hurt were discharged from the hospital, but young children have died in previous crashes.
Despite the recent rash of aviation disasters, airline crashes remain rare, but children could easily get hurt if they are on a parent’s lap during turbulence.
Experts agree it’s safer for children under two years old to have their own plane seats and ride in approved car seats when flying, even if families have to pay for an extra ticket.
However, babies are still allowed to travel in laps, so parents continue doing it despite the risks.
“The saddest part is that most families who travel with a lap child think that because it’s allowed, it’s safe,” said former flight attendant Jan Brown, who had to look a mother in the face after she had just lost her 22-month-old son when their plane crashed and broke into several pieces near Sioux City, Iowa, in 1989.
Brown stopped that mother from climbing back into the wreckage of United Flight 232 after it came to rest upside down in a cornfield. Of the four lap children on that plane, three were injured and the woman’s son was among the 112 people who died.
A six-month-old boy travelling on a parent’s lap died in 2012 when a plane landed hard and overran the end of a runway in Nunavut, Canada.
Last year, three infants on laps could have been pulled out of an Alaska Airlines plane after a door plug detached mid flight, but none were seated close enough to the opening for that to happen.
In car seats
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and its counterpart in Canada, the Transportation Safety Board, have long recommended that young children fly only in approved car seats to protect them.
The Federal Aviation Administration also recommends the use of car seats but doesn’t require it despite lobbying from advocates.
In addition to those safety regulators, the American Academy of Pediatrics and most major airline trade groups and unions support requiring young children to fly in approved car seats.
The main crash investigators in the United States and Canada started recommending car seats for children under two and specialised restraint systems for older kids until they are taller than 40 inches (102cm) after the deadly crashes in their countries decades ago.
Not only is it safer for children to ride in their own seats, but it’s more enjoyable for parents who don’t have to hold a squirming baby for hours in the air.
Car seat expert and mother Michelle Pratt, who founded Safe in the Seat, said no matter how tempting it is to check that lap child box, families should get everyone a ticket.
Some are not convinced
Some parents like Clare Ronning aren’t convinced. After landing in Burbank, California, with her husband and five-month-old baby recently, she said she doesn’t see a need for a car seat on a plane.
But Meredith Tobitsch never imagined flying without a seat for her three-year-old daughter and won’t do it with her 14-month-old now, either, because of safety and practical concerns.
“If there was turbulence, your natural reflex would be to let go of your child,” said Tobitsch, who lives in Connecticut, adding that her oldest daughter always slept better in her car seat, making the flights much more enjoyable.
The FAA relies on a study done in the 1990s to justify not requiring families to buy tickets for children younger than two.
The rationale is that if families had to buy those extra tickets, more of them might drive instead of fly.
Because driving is riskier than flying, that would mean more kids would die in car crashes than would be saved in planes if car seats and separate tickets were required.
NTSB member Tom Chapman thinks that logic is a stretch and the study should be revisited, particularly since airline tickets are more affordable today.
But parent Andrea Arredondo suggested there might be some truth to it, saying she might fly less if she had to buy a ticket and lug along a car seat for her four-month-old when flying with her family and two older kids. – AP
