Flying with infant (esp. on your lap)?

margaret,

its unfortunate that many people dont realize the dangers of turbulance. If they are unfortunate they will learn first hand and the child will probably pay for the parents ignorance.

I found out the hard way that didnt cost anything other than a damaged camera when my friend, a pilot, took me on a small hop around Or/Wa to see all of the mountains. I was buckled in but my camera wasn't. My friend insisted to be buckled in all the time and while that saved my head, my camera took a short and fast hop off my lap into the ceiling of the plane when the plane dropped about 10+ feet. no warning or anything. So i keep that in the back of my mind while traveling. And i think of that incident every time i see some kid standing in his seat.

happy trails.

What really struck me in the referenced article is how legally you can't have a child sitting on your lap in a car but you can on a plane. Granted flying is much safer than driving but having been in sudden turbulence (once my glasses flew off my face and hit the ceiling) I can see how you could lose hold of your child. I mean, who has a death grip on their child non stop for several hours. Maybe someone tinkering in their garage will come up with some sort of harness that allows some movement while still maintaining the child in the seat. Hummm And yes, I've flown with my own infants (happily many years ago).

As Marie points out, it's counter-intuitive to allow kids to fly while sitting on someone's lap (or standing on a seat). Another poor tradeoff when it comes to safety vs. dollars. I suspect that lobbyists could be to blame, or thank depending on your point of view, for that.
An infant or small child is difficult to contain on a long flight, but to have the ability for them to be secured in their own seat for at least most of the flight makes a lot of sense, expense notwithstanding.

See: http://www.faa.gov/passengers/fly_children/

The problem (politics) of mandating child restraint systems for air travel is the cost of buying a seat for the child. Too many parents are either trying to economize or really can't afford air travel if they have to buy that seat. From an airline point of view, a seat is a seat in terms of cost and revenue with the slightly lesser weight of a child having a negligible savings on fuel. (They don't charge adults weight over 200 pounds extra so why would the discount children weighing under a 100 pounds).

The FAA is apparently reluctant to mandate restraint systems (and the separate seat needed to accommodate the restraint) ironically from a safety point of view. The FAA apparently has been concerned that to the extent air travel becomes too expensive for family travel, the family (with the small child) may elect to drive to their destination rather than fly. Statistically speaking, a child is safer flying without a separate seat and qualified restraint system then driving with a qualified restraint system.\

I suppose an alternative would be a Fed regulation that mandates separate seats with restraint systems for children AND mandates that airlines significantly discount those seats. The airlines would then have to up the charges for adult passengers to offset the loss revenue. I'm sure many forum participants would have something to say about higher fares.

PS. I'm one of the choir. I bought a seat for my first child then about 9 mo. of age and tried to use our car seat restraint for that purchased airline seat. I was not allowed to use the child car seat and told to hold the baby during take off and landings. We did get to use that purchased seat during flight so our son didn't have to kick a non-family passenger.