It seems apparent from the interview with Matt Lauer today that at least one baby on board US Air flight 1549 was a “lap baby”.
This is one lucky little kid. The male passenger sitting next to the mother offered to “brace” the unrestrained baby for impact and she handed him over. I’m not sure what he did but he deserves credit for doing something right because the baby appears uninjured during today’s interview with his parents.
Now, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I don’t think parents should count on the intuitions of the guy seated next to them to protect their children in a crash. Sure, you could get lucky (this mother and child surely did) but I wouldn’t take those odds to Vegas. Especially not when there’s practically a sure thing – an FAA approved carseat.
Of course, the chances of your plane crashing are very, very small. And most of us realize that we (and our children) are MUCH more likely to be injured or killed on the ground in a motor vehicle. But still…. that doesn’t excuse us from making poor decisions for our children up in the air just to save money.
Yes, I know lap babies are technically “allowed” but that in itself doesn’t make it a good idea. In some states you’re technically “allowed” to marry your first cousin. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea, know what I mean?
Children under 2 can’t advocate for themselves in travel situations. If they could – imagine what they would say when they found out you weren’t planning to buy a ticket for them. This is how I imagine it ….
“Great. Juuust great. You save some dinero and I get to be the potential lap rocket if something goes wrong. Why don’t you just sit unrestrained on the floor and let me have the ticketed seat (with carseat and seatbelt, of course).”
I know some parents feel like they have no choice but to fly with a lap baby. They can offer endless excuses and justifications for their actions. Some might be legitimate. But every traveling parent needs to ask themselves if they could live with their choices if something went terribly wrong. Would the “no choice” arguments and justifications really hold up in hindsight? I hope none of us ever needs to answer that question.
What is so disheartening to me is that we know how to protect these kids and the answer is simple. It doesn’t require a 10 year study, a congressional hearing or a trillion dollar budget. It only requires that you purchase a ticket for each and every child that will be flying with you and use an appropriate, FAA-approved child restraint.
Adventuredad: Yes, plane travel is safe for the most part. And once a kid can sit well in the plane there’s no reason not to let them sit in the lap belt on the plane, other than it’s a convenient way to avoid checking your car seat (which some companies now CHARGE for even) and some kids are more comfortable that way. But children under 2 should have their own seats anyway. We’re not talking about the 4 year old, although the father had to help brace her, as much as about the 9 month old. If he had been in a purchased seat, in a properly-installed car seat, no one would have had to brace him.
I watched that… and really I had to keep watching once they said the baby’s name (Damian… my son’s name).
I think she actually made the right decision handing her baby over… she seemed petite and she said the man next to her was a more frequent traveler and father of five…. and he’d been through difficult flights before…. so it sounds like (horror) this poor man had been in a similar (yet less severe) situation before and knew what to do to ensure the baby wouldn’t fly down the aisle.
Still, what bothered me as much (if not more) than the fact the baby was a lapbaby, was that her husband had to brace their daughter. During turbulance or a situation like this, he wouldn’t have had to brace her, even if they didn’t bring her carseat, if the seatbelt fit her, or if they had a cares harness. It is why I hate how expensive they are and that the airline can’t just keep some and rent them.
Not only that, but the fact that the baby was just that… a lap baby, not in a carseat, says to me that some of the fault of that situation, which many very GOOD parents wind up in, is due to the airlines. Would they sell the seats for young children (under 40lbs) a more discounted price.
there has to be something that will prevent the occasional tragedy of a baby losing his life that doesn’t cost so much!!
This child is indeed very lucky and I’m guessing the parents will never fly with a lap baby again. Operating under the assumption that air is safer than land and it’s a rarity to be injured in the air due to non-restraint use wouldn’t be much comfort to a grieving parent. Personally I wouldn’t want to be the one responsible for re-assuring a parent not to worry about a lap baby and just ditch the car seat at home.
What I always wonder is how the same people who have a million reasons to not buy a ticket for an infant suddenly have the money to start buying tickets when the baby turns two.
Priorities I guess. It’s what it always comes down to.
While being in a car sat on planes probably is slightly safer the safety benefits are so incredibly small its difficult to even measure. Dying or injured lap babies are virtually unheard of and so are kids saved by car seats in accidents. Looking at the big picture, with 25 000+flights in US alone each day and virtually zero injuries/deaths, anything we do with our kids is more dangerous than flying.
You beat me to this, Kecia :). I don’t know why car seats in airplanes tends to be one of my trigger points since I don’t fly that much, but it is. Where else would you willing allow an unbelted child? It’s appalling.
A former flight attendant has an excellent blog. She’s in the process of updating it with pictures and actually making a proper web site for it, so I’ll just link to her published article since it’s split up by sections and is much easier to read that way.
Relevant to this discussion: http://www.expatwomen.com/mothers/flying_with_children/car_seats.php
Sharon’s full blog: http://www.expatwomen.com/mothers/flying_with_children.php
what gets me is that the FAA acknowledges that using a child restraint is safest (as noted in your last link) and even has a campaign against lap children, and yet continues to allow them.
http://www.faa.gov/passengers/media/SLICK_ArmsPSA.pdf
From what I have read the usual way to brace an infant is to place him between your feet, on the floor, and push the head down.
Not something I want to try in a crash. It has a pretty high survival rate from what I hear– but “pretty high” does not equal “100%.”
I’m never flying again without buying a seat for any under-2 kids I have with me. Too many birds in the air!