Lap babies still allowed on planes after door plug blowout

By Brendan Keefe

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    ATLANTA (WANF) — How could a safety requirement end up killing more children than it would save?

The answer to that question has allowed parents to carry babies and toddlers on their laps at 35,000 feet and more than 500 miles per hour for decades. There is also no airfare cost for a lap baby.

Since 1995, the Federal Aviation Administration has relied on multiple studies showing a safety-restraint requirement for children under two on commercial aircraft would lead to many more highway deaths if parents choose to drive instead of fly.

In the meantime, the FAA strongly recommends parents buy a ticket for their babies. “The safest place for your child under the age of two on a U.S. airplane is in approved child restraint system…not in your lap,” it said.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said there were three lap babies onboard Alaska Flight 1282 when the door plug blew out at 16,000 feet. By pure chance, there was nobody sitting in the two seats closest to the gaping hole in the side of the plane.

The NTSB has been pushing for a child restraint requirement for decades. At a news briefing about the investigation, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy underscored the agency’s recommendation to parents. “Put their children under two in their own seat in a FAA-approved car seat so that they are secure and they are safe,” Homendy said.

Researchers published a 2003 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showing deaths of young children on airliners are incredibly rare; so rare, in fact, that fewer than one baby or toddler has been killed on a commercial aircraft per year in the United States.

Sometimes there are decades between each death because plane crashes are thankfully rare.

According to the study, “the FAA … argued in a 1995 report to Congress that child-restraint systems on aircraft would prevent a maximum of five child plane crash deaths per 10 years and would result in a net-increase of 82 deaths per 10 years because of families shutting to other, less-safe modes of travel.”

The idea is the cost of buying a seat for an infant would cause a small proportion of families to drive instead of fly, subjecting their children to much more dangerous highways.

In the United States, one vehicle-related death for every 200 million miles driven. The rate of deaths for air travel is one for every 10 billion miles flown. On a per-mile basis, highways are far more dangerous for the same trip, and because it takes longer to drive the same distance, the studies show the exposure to those statistics is greater for driving than flying.

But the JAMA study pointed out some families may choose to avoid the trip altogether — avoiding the flight and the drive — which would actually save an untold number of children’s and adults’ lives.

The Canadian Transportation Safety Board recommended a safety restraint requirement after a lap baby was killed in a crash in 2012.

Canada’s aviation authority, Transport Canada, considered the rule, but found similar statistics showing it would cost more lives than it would save. “Parents choosing to drive would add 164 million more vehicle kilometers of highway travel per year on Canadian roads. This would translate into at least 10 premature highway deaths in the next decade in Canada, but might save one infant life by air,” the agency concluded.

A more recent study published by Pediatric Emergency Care in 2019 was critical of the research that came before it.

“We believe this to be a weak argument on many levels and akin to projecting that the higher cost of acquiring an automobile outfitted with airbags would inadvertently increase the risk of injury because families could shift to using cheaper and riskier vehicles (e.g., motorcycles) as a mode of transportation,” the researchers said.

But that same study showed among the most common injuries to infants on airplanes were burns from hot coffee and tea. How a safety restraint would prevent those injuries isn’t clear.

The studies upon which the U.S. and Canadian aviation agencies relied upon focused solely on infant deaths from plane crashes. They did not examine the far more common occurrence of turbulence.

The FAA acknowledges the danger in its recommendation — but not requirement — for child restraints. “Your arms aren’t capable of holding your in-lap child securely, especially during unexpected turbulence, which is the number one cause of pediatric injuries on an airplane,” the FAA said.

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) encourages parents to use safety restraints when flying. “Turbulence is a really big issue,” said Meaghan Gibson, a certified child passenger safety specialist. “That is where we’re seeing a lot of these injuries come from.”

CHOA offers consultations with parents and inspections of safety seats. Not all car seats are approved for aircraft. Gibson said it’s important to check the warning label to make sure the child restraint system is FAA-approved if you want to use it in the car and on the aircraft.

The FAA will let you hold your infant in your arms during a flight, but they won’t let you use just any car seat, adding another expense for parents who may have to buy a second car seat in addition to a full-price plane ticket for their infant.

The current alternative is to hold their child in their arms for free.

Most U.S. airlines don’t offer a discount for children of any age. The charge is for the seat, regardless of whether an adult or an infant will sit there.

In recent congressional hearings, witnesses have suggested airlines voluntarily offer extremely discounted airfares for children under two, or a federal requirement that would accomplish the same thing.

Some parents we talked to said it’s not just about the money. Sarah and Skye Carter told Atlanta News First Investigates they’re concerned about their child Kylo’s comfort, especially considering the low risk of injury during a flight.

“It’s a horrible idea,” Sarah Carter said about any proposed child restraint requirement. “It would make traveling a lot more difficult. Kylo is breastfeeding, so it makes it very convenient to be able to hold him.”

Other parents have developed a workaround. They book a window and an aisle seat for themselves, hoping the middle seat is empty for their child and their car seat. If not, they gate check the car seat and hold the baby in their laps. Both options save them the cost of a plane ticket.

“Buying a ticket for your child is the only way to guarantee that you will be able to use a child restraint system,” the FAA said.

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