Most parents would never dream of letting their children sit in a car without being belted in... So why should being on board an aircraft be any different?
The following is a true story... I know that alot of my regular readers out there are mothers of young children, so I would love to hear your feed back on this situation.
Monday, Enid and I were working a flight to Dayton, OH. We had this mother who had a 3 year old child who was being fussy. So she proceeded to hold him on her lap for take off. FAA mandates that any child age 2 years and older must occupy, and be seatbelted in their own seat for taxi, take-off and landing. Enid and I had to tell the woman 3 different times, during taxi to put her son in his own seat, before she glared at Enid, while she threw her crying son in his seat. Yes, that's what I said, threw! Now I understand that her son was scared and crying, but it doesn't excuse his mother from the rules that everyone else has to follow. I am not a mother, but I know that parenting isn't easy.
Here are some things to consider:
When traveling by car, do you take your seatbelt off as you are turning onto your street?
Do you ride around in your car with your infant in your arms?
Do you make your children wear their seat belts, when they are in the car?
Do you let your children run around inside your car?
Do you argue with a police officer, if you get pulled over?
Then why do people have such a hard time doing the same thing on an airplane?
The rules that the FAA madates that me and my coworkers ensure that passengers follow is for everyone's safety, especially you and your children...
I understand that plane tickets can be expensive, especailly for a family of 4 or 5. The FAA does allow children under the age of two to be a lap child, and travel for free. How much is a child's safety worth? In an emergency, even a minor one like let's say the landing gear won't come down. The force of impact upon landing will make it impossible for you to keep your arms around your child. I am a firm believer that all children regardless of age should occupy a seat in an approved child restaint device, just like travel by car.
6 comments:
I will never understand why some people seem to have no care about thier own safety or the safety of thier children.
People don't think... That's the problem. That's why there has to be individuals like you and I that are forced to be the bad guy, and think for them!
I fly a lot and yes, I fly with my children on occasion.....all five of them.
When they were munchkins they were in AAP approved car seats. American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines for child safety restraints ciovers requirements across the fifty states and FAA requirements.
I would even suck it up and buy the ticket for a seat for my traveling infants.....really airlines should walk the talk and do something about that $$$$$$ if they really, truly care about the infant's safety.
The only exception I made to restraining my munchkins under 2 was with landing and takeoffs. I would be nursing the baby so they could adjust to the change in cabin pressure as we ascended or descended......trust me, I do see the nasty looks and hear the snide comments from passengers, and, sorry to say, on rare occasion crew, as I have boarded with more than one of my children in the past. Everyone in the plane is "happy" because baby is not disrupting their air space and no one could see a thing save for baby's cute feet peeking out from under the blanket. Once their sensitive ears adjusted they were back in the safety restraints. I may be judged for not keeping them in their car seat but I would have been judged even more harshly if they were screaming in pain from the changes in the air pressure so that is the only exception I have made in the past.
Laura
You sound like a parent who is proactive about child safety, but there are many more out there who are not. I have heard many passengers make snide comments towards parents with small children, only to have the adults act out more than the children that they were complaining about. Keeping a nursing infant in your arms is one thing, but ignoring repeated instructions from cabin crew to belt in a 3 year old that you can't control is another.
Things do need to be done about making it more appealing for parents to buy a ticket instead of keeping their child on their lap. There is no easy solution for this issue. I know what can happen in an emergency, god forbid one should arrise. I have seen videos about what happens if a plane crashes. Though the chances are next to nil, that is something that I have to keep on my mind all of the time. Safety of my passengers, no matter how small is my #1 consern.
Wish you'd been on our MSP-ATL flight a couple days ago. Mother of 2 first had a ~1.5 year old sleeping/feeding from bottle on an empty 2-seat row (MD-80) across the aisle from her but not strapped in for about 45 minutes. Then for landing she was just going to kneel down next to his seat, FA came up & told her to buckle in but failed to follow up. She picked the kid up and sat down with him in her lap but w/o using the belt.
Sooner or later the "it can't happen to me" attitude catches up w/ people. This was on the same airline that had a 737 run off the end of a runway at the same airport a few months ago (not meant as an indictment of the airline, in that particualar case it suffered an engine failure on takeoff & had to return for a quick landing in bad weather).
And here's a real-life example -- collision yesterday between a DC-9 & a A-319 at a gate in MSP:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=431408
Buckle 'em!
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