As tens of millions of Americans take to the air this week and throughout the holiday season, the folks at the Federal Aviation Administration have a simple, but important, safety recommendation for parents flying with children:
Aboard the plane, the safest place for your child is in a child safety seat or device based on your child’s weight--not in your lap.
Fortunately, because many child safety seats are approved for both motor vehicle use and air travel, you can use the same safety seat in the car or taxi on the way to the airport, on the plane, and at your destination. Note that booster seats are an exception--while they do enhance safety in motor vehicles, they are not approved for use on airplanes.
If traveling safely with your children seems like a challenge, our FAA has prepared a terrific website to help you and your precious cargo get where you're going. On the site, you can find a brochure called "Childproof Your Flight: play it safe when flying with your child." I encourage you to print it and take it with you during your travels.
We want parents to make informed decisions about child safety when traveling by air this holiday season. Securing children in child safety seats aboard the aircraft is a smart way to keep your kids safe--it's the right thing to do.
But, whether you're driving or flying this holiday season and throughout the year, please remind your loved ones to always buckle up.
HELP! I am a mother in Dallas of a teen age son. We have a mother/son service group called YMSL. I am in charge of a meeting in January, and I want it to be on the dangers of distracted driving. I CAN FIND NO ONE to speak to my group. I called the Dallas Police Department Community Division, and they had no idea what I was talking about. They said they could send one of the sargents out to talk about his career. HELP! There has got to be others in need of this.
Mary
zmamma@aol.com
Posted by: Mary Dorflinger | November 22, 2010 at 12:21 PM
This comment is about disableing phones in automobiles. It would seem to be easy to put something in a car that would block the phone signal when the car was started. If you wanted to make a call you could pull over, turn the car off and call. This is the only way any of us will be safe. None of these calls is important enough to kill someone.
Posted by: Patricia Saemmer | November 22, 2010 at 02:10 PM
I admire your effort. Parents should take extra care of their children and i salute you guys
Posted by: Salman Aslam | November 23, 2010 at 05:53 AM
This is a good reminder for parents. We should always make sure that our children are safe in traveling. A must read!
Posted by: seo company | November 25, 2010 at 10:03 AM
Thank for this suggest for safety.
Posted by: ibcbet | November 29, 2010 at 06:54 AM
I was wondering about this exact thing when I flew over Thanksgiving break. I was reasonably satisfied with the answer I had obtained by research that I can't simply keep my small laptop in my lap not for fear of it being used and "interfering with communications" by the airline staff, but because given unexpected turbulence, it can turn into a projectile, moving great speeds in a short amount of time--it's extremely dangerous. So I accordingly tuck it in the pocket. That's fine.
So like I said, I was wondering why parents are allowed to keep their young children in their laps--unrestrained by anything usually--that makes little sense. The DOT advisement seems logically sound to me.
Posted by: Ryan | December 10, 2010 at 12:45 PM
Yeah, parents should take more effort on their child safety. And I agreed that the safest place for your child on the plane is not on their lap.
Thanks for the brochure too. =)
Posted by: Daniel Dan | August 06, 2011 at 02:12 AM