Following many recent episodes of severe turbulence, flight attendants have resumed requests to prohibit newborns from sitting on parents’ laps during flights. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA), which represents over 50,000 flight attendants across 20 airlines, has encouraged legislators to require all travelers, no matter their age, to have their own seats on a journey for safety reasons. Currently, nearly all airlines permit kids below the age of two to fly for free on the lap of a parent or guardian.
Many domestic airlines, such as American carriers that provide long-distance and last minute flights, allow children under the age of two to fly for free if they sit “in the lap of their parent (of any age) or any accompanied by an adult who is 16 or older flying in the same cabin.”
Sara Nelson is the worldwide president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the biggest flight attendant union in the United States, representing almost 50,000 flight attendants on 19 airlines. Nelson told the Washington Post that for the past three decades, the union has been pressing for a change in lap baby laws.
Most parents even cannot protect their loved ones against the universal force of gravity. It’s just not physically possible.
Last week, the union brought up the problem at a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety conference in Northern Virginia, and it has published a list of demands to Congress, including “a seat for every soul.”
This is supported by current instructions on the FAA website.
According to the agency’s “Flying with Children” suggested webpage, “the best spot for your child under the age of two on a US airplane is within an authorized child restraint system (CRS) or device, rather than on your lap.”
Guardians’ arms are usually incapable of grabbing their loved ones in their laps, particularly when they have pediatric injuries on a plane, which is in turbulence.
The request came after a Lufthansa flight from Austin, Texas, was forced to divert to Dulles International Airport in Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, due to severe turbulence.
Seven individuals were hurt and brought to the hospital, while a newborn was thrown from its mother’s arms.
According to one passenger, the plane went into “free fall” at the start of the dinner service, and both passengers and food “went flying into the air, hitting and even damaging the plane’s ceiling.”
The flight “felt short but severe instability about 90 minutes after takeoff,” Lufthansa claimed in a statement to The Independent. As a precaution, the Lufthansa jet made an unexpected landing at Washington Dulles Airport.”
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