I remember being told I could not use my 2-year-old child’s booster seat on an airplane in 1993. This was on the final flight of a 4 flight round trip (she had used it the previous 3 flights with no issues) and she just about lost it when the flight attendant took it away. They said she would be crushed if the seats all slid forward? And here I thought I was being a good parent!
This exists
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I’m not criticizing the actions of the flight attendants onboard. I am just pointing out that the FAA and NTSB are the bodies with responsibility for deciding on the optimum balance of safety regulations, not the flight attendants union, and the FAA will weigh all the costs and benefits.
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My understanding is that the most dangerous thing you can do on a flight is put your child in a body carrier. You will note that the BA baby seat belt extension is a separate piece.
I was told decades ago,that if your child is in a carrier, there’s a danger that if you are thrown forward,the infant will be crushed by your body weight because your seat belt will hold you in.
We flew a lot when my D was under 2 and the European carriers wouldn’t let you “wear” your baby.
I don’t know if it’s true, but way back then,it was the policy. It’s the same reason you shouldn’t strap a child sitting in your lap into one seat belt with you.
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Thank you so much!
Seems to be random enforcement, or possibly misunderstanding of the rules. I recall the flight attendant would not let me put my youngest (infant at the time) in the car seat, even though the seat next to me was open. Said that because the car seat did not have a sticker saying it was approved for flights (I think the seat predated any such stickers), that child had to be held on the lap.
Perhaps just following the rules, for legal reasons, though I have to think it is safer to be in any car seat, than on the lap.
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My children always flew in their car seats.
I knew a woman who was aboard United Airlines flight 232 which crashed in Sioux City, IA in 1989. Her son, Evan, was 20 months old (just a little younger than my oldest daughter was at the time) and was flying as a lap child. He was one of the 11 children killed by the crash. She told a devastating story about how she desperately tried to hold onto Evan as the plane crash only to have him fly out of arms on impact. The woman sitting next to her on the plane was also holding a lap child. (The flight crew moved all parents with lap children together into a single row of seats so they could better monitor them. There were 4 parents with lap children.) She recounted how the woman next her also saw her child go flying out of her arms and into the air and only managed to grab him by one ankle. The child was seriously injured, but survived. Evan didn’t. His body wasn’t found for several days after the plane crash.
The accident devastated Sylvia. She blames herself for her son’s death to this day. The accident also destroyed her marriage and ended her career. (She has a PhD in physics and was a professional research scientist at a National Lab at he time of the accident.)
After seeing and hearing Sylvia’s story, how could I ever allow any of my children to fly as a lap child? They went in a car seat in separately paid for seat. Even when I was flying alone cross country with 2 small children the car seat went with me. Even when the flight attendant told me I couldn’t take the car seat on the plane, my baby flew, strapped into a car seat.
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Yes, that is a horrifying incident, 35 years ago. Almost everyone in the back half of that plane died.
Fortunately, such incidents are extraordinarily rare, and I would prefer the Government to focus its attention on safety measures that would be more likely to regularly improve transportation safety.
ETA-the Wikipedia article on that flight has the outcome for every passenger. It appears of the 4 lap children present, 1 died, 1 had minor injuries, and 2 were unhurt. So the FAA is likely using the actual data in its decisions.
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I usually always bought a ticket for my D to fly in a car seat. Only a couple times she had to be a lap baby and that was solely on the airline for overbooking then canceling her ticket and another time the flight was cancelled and the only way to get home that day was if I held her. Aside from serious turbulence on some flights my flights had been fairly safe - until it wasn’t. We were all flying together and had to prepare for a crash landing ironically just after takeoff from Portland on Alaska Airlines. The landing gear malfunctioned and there were no brakes. Seattle was waiting for us with a cleared out runway section and long lines of various emergency vehicles. My D was about 5, fortunately nobody was injured and the plane was able to be stopped roughly. I couldn’t imagine the horror if I was just holding her and bracing the way we were instructed to. We all clapped for the brave crew and pilots.
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Looks like lots of people are having the same thoughts about this issue, after the recent incident.
If the baby is tightly restrained in a chest front carrier worn OUTSIDE a seatbelt fitted snugly around the adult’s hips, low on the body, and there is a sudden drop due to turbulence, then the baby will drop with the adult’s body which is strapped into the seat, and not hit the ceiling. In a high speed collision, or a crash, the adult’s body will whip forward, and if there is a baby strapped to them, the baby would be crushed against the seat in front of them, for sure. But I would guess that turbulence is a much more common occurrence than a collision or crash.
Strapped into car seat belted into plane seat is clearly best, but if that is impossible, it seems to me that while tightly secured in a front carrier, strapped to adult who is belted in, the baby would be safe against hitting the ceiling during turbulence.
For a trip that can be driven in under two days, I could see a young family with two kids under 2 deciding to drive and pay for a hotel one night, rather than buy 4 tickets. So I can definitely see that argument, too, that mandating car seats in a purchased seat for children under 2 would push young families into driving instead.
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Humans are so bad at risk assessment, especially if we know someone that something rare and terrible happened to. I knew a girl named Leslie Mahaffy as a young teen. She was brutally murdered by serial killers along with two other girls in the early 90s. Feel free to google but I’d warn you not to.
In any case, even after the killers were caught, many of the parents in our community flipped out, even though statistically we were much more likely to hurt ourselves driving, boating, or swimming in the lake, which we were still allowed to do. I think you see the same behavior in some Covid era restrictions, fear of flying after something scary happens, or swimming in the ocean after a shark attack. We’re an irrational species 
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Toddlers probably can sit strapped in with adult seat belts, but probably less comfortably than in toddler seats.
Infants who cannot sit up be themselves would not be a reasonable use case for an adult seat belt.
Seems like those infant seat belts that strap the infant to the parent should be inexpensive enough that parents may want to buy them if they knew about them. Seems like they would be something the shops in the departure areas of airports may find worth offering, although I have not seen such a thing in any such shop.
The few times I’ve seen those have been on non US carriers. Last time I remember it was a flight from Zurich to Nairobi about 12 years ago.
Apparently the FAA bans these devices on US airlines. I expect that if they raised the issue they’d immediately be met with cries of “mandate car seats” which they don’t want. And the sellers of these devices would be hit with lawsuits if a child was hurt.
Also, in economy class seats, an adult in the brace position with head against the next seat would not fold over enough to crush a lap infant. I.e. that is more of a risk in the premium classes and bulkhead seats where there is room to fold over (and the brace position is fully folded over).
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FAA-Approved CARES Device
AmSafe’s Child Aviation Restraint System (CARES) device is FAA-certified for children who are up to 40 inches tall and who weigh between 22 and 44 pounds. The device provides for those who are capable of sitting upright alone in a forward-facing position and who occupy their own seat.
from https://www.faa.gov/travelers/fly_children
Note: “Beware of CARES counterfeits sold online. Buy direct from the manufacturer to be sure the CARES device you use is authentic and manufactured with the same industrial-strength webbing as aircraft seat belts. The FAA is aware of disreputable third-party retailers who offer reproduction devices that resemble CARES for sale but that have not been engineered to the highest aviation-safety standards by AmSafe®. Learn more about CARES.”
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We had one of these for our kids. They’re great but more for restraining a 3 or 4 year old than a lap baby.
Once my daughter couldn’t travel with a car seat I bought this for her. It looks like it’s been redesigned since I used it 12 years or so ago. Definitely gave me some comfort that she had a little better trunk support.
I think a study could show if this is true if people with 2 and 3 year olds, who used to fly when it was ‘free’ to have lap kids now drive because they have to buy tickets for the kids. I’ve been on planes with tons of 2 and 3 year olds, so I don’t think the families suddenly start driving.
In my own family, we all flew on vacation one time, 6 kids and only one was a lap child (and a huge one at that). We didn’t sudden start driving on vacations because that one kid aged out but because it was too expensive to buy 8 tickets.
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