Flight attendants are renewing the decision to ban babies from sitting on their parent’s lap amid incidents of severe turbulence during recent flights.
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union, which has nearly 50,000 members, is pushing for airlines to require all passengers, no matter age, to have their very own seats on a flight.
Most airlines currently allow children under 2 years old to fly without cost on their parent’s lap.
Sara Nelson, the international president of the union, said the difficulty has remained a priority for flight attendants for a long time on account of the protection concerns.
“We’ve seen airplanes undergo turbulence recently and drop 4,000 feet in a split second,” Nelson told the Washington Post, referring to a Dulles flight earlier this month that saw seven injured and an infant flying out of their mother’s arms.
“The G-forces aren’t something even probably the most loving mother or father can guard against and hold their child,” she added. “It’s just physically not possible.”
The union raised the difficulty last Wednesday on the Federal Aviation Administration’s safety summit and submitted its demand of “a seat for each soul” to Congress.
The FAA’s current regulation reads: “A seat and a person safety belt are required for every passenger and crew member excluding infants, who’re in apart from a recumbent position.”
Despite the rule, the FAA echoes the advice of health experts who’ve previously joined the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA’s call to ban lap-babies.
In its “Flying with Children” overview, the FAA writes: “The safest place in your child under the age of two on a US airplane is in approved child restraint system (CRS) or device, not in your lap. Your arms aren’t able to holding your in-lap child securely, especially during unexpected turbulence, which is the primary explanation for pediatric injuries on an airplane.”
A 2014 study by researchers on the University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital found that 90% of infant deaths on flights between 2010 and 2013 were of kids under age 2.
Nelson said her union was originally spurred to motion following a 1989 incident, by which United Flight 232 crash-landed in Sioux City, Iowa, leading to the death of an infant together with three other babies injured.
Following protocol on the time, flight attendants had told parents to wrap their babies in blankets and place them on the ground.
“Sadly this has been greater than a 30-year priority for our union,” Nelson said. “We should have children protected on the plane and in their very own seats with a correct restraint device to be sure that it never happens again.”
The union’s advice comes as lawmakers are working on the FAA’s reauthorization bill, which expires in September.
