The National Transportation Safety Board is looking to implement new regulations that will see children aged two and under, having their own seats on flights. In its recently-published recommendations to improve safety across planes, trains, and automobiles, it recommends that the Federal Aviation Administration in the US cease the practice of allowing infants to fly while sitting on an adult’s lap.
The NTSB wants infants to have their own seats on planes. Image: Biddiboo/Getty Images
The NTSB is making the recommendation because it believes that turbulence can cause serious injury and even death to unsecured infants. According to NTSB board member, Earl Weener, people’s automatic reaction is to brace during turbulence, and that can mean that the infant is temporarily released from the adult’s grip, resulting in injury.
The NTSB wants the FAA to cease the practice of allowing infants to fly while sitting on an adult’s lap. Image: Caiaimage/Agnieszka Olek/Getty Images
While many infants will be too small to sit in their own seats, the NTSB suggests the use of FAA-approved car seats that can be secured in the seat next to a parent, or an approved safety restraint system. While this may improve safety, it is unlikely to endear itself to passengers, because it will be harder to soothe crying babies if they can’t be cuddled on a parent’s lap when their ears start to hurt.
It will be harder to soothe crying babies if they can’t be cuddled on a parents’ lap. Image: Chris Tobin
Whether the FAA takes the suggestion on board remains to be seen, as the NTSB also made the same recommendation in 2014, 2016 and 2017 and no action was taken. “We are careful to strap our children into car seats when we drive to the airport; we should be as diligent in securing them in their own seat aboard the aircraft,” the safety board wrote back in 2014.
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