“A coffee pot has better protection than an infant,” – Candace Kolander

Kolander, who deals with air safety and health for the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents 50,000 flight attendants at 22 airlines continues to say, “We believe that all occupants deserve the same protection, including infants,”

The National Transportation Safety Board recommends children under 2 use approved car seats for airplane travel and is working with the Federal Aviation Administration to change regulations. They say “Proper restraint use is one of the most basic and important tenets of
crashworthiness and survivability.”

As much as a mother or father might love their child, it is highly unlikely that they will be able to hold on tight enough during a crash to stop the baby from flying throughout the cabin. “Most aviation accidents are survivable,” said Nora Marshall, who oversees aviation survival factors for the NTSB. “Your child deserves the same level of protection that you’re going to get with a restraint system.”

So now the NTSB is pushing the Federal Aviation Administration to require child seats for infants. Currently the FAA says that only children over the age of 2 need their own seats. Everybody younger can fly on their parent’s lap.

But don’t expect any change soon. The NTSB has been seeking this change since 1979.

The key here is that airlines current let anybody under the age of 2 fly for free if they don’t require their own seat. If all children needed to be in a car seat, the airlines would likely charge for that extra seat. In the past, the FAA has said that it believes the extra charge would force some families to drive instead of flying and that driving isn’t as safe as flying.

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