Flying with your baby in your lap may be a thing of the past if this ban gets passed

Flight attendants renew call to ban lap babies, citing safety concerns, according to Good Morning America. The lap babies ban would prohibit children 2-years-old and younger from sitting on the laps of parents or caregivers during flights.

Sara Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, CWA, spoke to the Washington Post and reported that the union has been pushing for this move for more than twenty years. CWA represents the largest union of flight attendants in the nation with close to 50,000 flight attendants across 19 airlines.

“The G-forces are not something even the most loving mother or father can guard against and hold their child. It’s just physically impossible,” Nelson told the Post.

The union has also continuously advocated for all passengers to remain in their seats with a restraint, such as a seat belt.

“The current practice,” Nelson said previously in 2019, “Of merely recommending that infants and small children under the age of 2 be in child restraint seats during critical phases of flight is inadequate to protect our most vulnerable passengers.”

A safety summit was held last Wednesday, March 15. Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, pointed out that turbulence not only accounts for “3 out of every 4 flight attendant injuries,” but that it is “especially dangerous for flight attendants.”

“We issued a report in 2021 to prevent turbulence-related injuries.” Homendy said. “It had 21 new recommendations and four that we re-iterated on weather reports, increased sharing of turbulence events, the need for flight attendants to be seated with their seatbelt buckled during certain phases of flight, and the need for parents to secure children under 2 in their own seat with an [Federal Aviation Administration]-approved child restraint system. All 25 turbulence recommendations remain open.”

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) agrees that the current practice of allowing infants ages 2 and under to sit on someone else’s lap is not a safe flying practice.

“Although children who have not reached their second birthday are permitted to travel as lap children, the FAA strongly discourages this practice and recommends that you secure your child in an approved [child restraint system] in their own seat for the entire flight,” the agency notes. “While there is no regulatory prohibition from using a booster seat or harness vest (or other non-approved devices) for a lap child during the cruise portion of the flight only, airlines have policies which may or may not allow the use of those devices. Check with your airline.”

Currently, multiple domestic airlines, such as American Airlines, allow for babies under 2 years old to travel for free if they are seated “in the lap of their parent (any age), or any accompanying adult 16 years or older traveling in the same cabin.”