Three years later, Khadija Zaidi-Rashid still remembers the screams of other passengers, the unstable expressions on the flight attendants' faces, and the helplessness of feeling he felt as he embraced the toddler on his lap.
Dr. Zaidi Rashid, a doctoral student at the time, flew from Washington to Doha, Qatar. Her other kids, toddlers, were seated next to her, the roller coaster shaking for 30 minutes, and the backing felt like time. Everyone has since appeared unharmed, but she can't overcome the sense of worry on every flight she takes.
“The turbulence caused me to feel claustrophobic, all sorts of maternal-related anxiety,” she said, adding that she no longer sleeps during the flight. She is now worried that older children will get out of the seat belts they need to have now. She often places her hands on them as a precaution.
She's not alone. In recent months, after a series of horrifying plane crashes and tarmac accidents, parents flocked to online bulletin boards, illuminating group chats and lowering fears about longstanding safety standards for upcoming flights and family trips.
The accident, including an air collision in Washington and a flip plane in Toronto, has encouraged concerns about whether planes, particularly young infants, are well protected. Anxiousness has forced some parents to rethink how they fly, and many are considering options ranging from bringing in a car seat to canceling a trip.
Keep your baby safe in the air
Holding your little one in your lap has been accepted in air travel for decades. This practice in which airlines allow travelers under the age of 2 to fly at free or sudden discounts will save airfares for parents or caregivers. Parents list convenience and child comfort as other important motivators.
However, the safety of practices has been debated for decades.
Aviation safety agencies around the world have made their position clear. Children are the safest on planes when they are secured in their seats with an approved child restraint system, such as a certified car seat for airplane use.
“Your arm cannot safely hold your arm, especially during unexpected turbulence,” the Federal Aviation Administration warns on its website. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency says several studies conclude that “child safety seats provide “the level of safety equivalent to what is provided to adult passengers.”
Pediatricians, flight attendants and academics agree. They highlight the increased risk of rapping children getting injured. They can be hit by objects falling from service carts or luggage bins in flight.
A 2019 survey by Journal Pediatric Emergency Care found that out of the approximately 114,000 medical events that occurred on flights between 2009 and 2014, more than 12,000 children were included. Of these, around 2,000 people were involved with rap children, making it “more than twice as likely to maintain a flight injury compared to other medical events in flight.”
However, if parents want to use car seats or other safety devices on board, the rules will vary depending on the airline (or even the seat on the aircraft). There are a variety of devices available. Some planes have bassinets, which you can request, but are not guaranteed on the date of your trip. Not all car seats fit in small planes. In Europe, infant seat belts are available to secure children to parents, but are not permitted in the US and Canada due to concerns that a child's abdomen could be seriously injured by seat belts and parents. There is even a rule that babies cannot be worn in their carriers during takeoff or landing, which is the most dangerous period of flight.
Lack of legislation
The official FAA language about children flying in Laps is merely a legal, weightless warning. The law to approve a new study on child safety in flight, introduced in Congress almost two years ago, has stagnated.
The lack of federal regulations regarding Rapp's children “gives parents the false assumption that if they are allowed it should be safe,” said Jan Brown, a former United Airlines flight attendant.
In 1989, Brown survived a crash of a plane in Iowa, killing 111 of the 296 people, including passengers and crew. The flight attendant encouraged parents to place their children at their feet. There were four rap infants during the flight, one 23 month old young man died.
It is very rare for passengers to die in commercial plane accidents, and aviation remains much safer than driving. This is the conclusion of a 1994 FAA study on the use of car seats on planes, with the report arguing that while car seats are the safest place for children, parents requesting that they block flights. Instead, they rely on driving, a statistically more deadly form of transport.
However, William McGee, a senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, has not had any substantial research into whether a significant number of families drive rather than fly due to the cost of buying a seat for their infants.
“It should be noted that the FAA has never actually studied its own theory,” he said. “Instead, it has always been envisioned without statistical analysis, investigations, public comments, or meaningful research, without meaningful research that violates federal rulemaking procedures.”
Riatuso, an expert on passenger safety for aviation children, said child safety remains a “sufficient in the aviation industry.”
Airlines usually do not pay attention to the safety risks of children with wraps on their websites.
Hannah Walden, a spokesman for US Trade Group Aviation, said in a statement that US airlines are “complying with guidance and regulations set by the Federal Aviation Administration, a safety regulator.”
However, there may be palpable changes in culture, he said: They are increasingly crowdsourcing for guidance on equipment and best practices to avoid children falling on their knees.
There are a lot of rules for adults flying on planes, but Chelsea Nichols, the mother of a 16-month-old child, appears to have “no rules for kids.”
Nichols, 35, a marketing executive from New Canaan, Connecticut, previously believed flying in a car seat was cumbersome and unrealistic. However, ahead of her recent flight to Florida, she bought her daughter a seat and a FAA-approved harness.
“I didn't feel like I was an uneasy person,” she said. “You sometimes take your own safety for granted, but when you're caring for a young child, it starts to overflow your mind.”
Nichols, a traveller to Florida, said he felt “comfortable and safe” seeing the child tied to his seat, especially during the occasional uplift of flights.
“It definitely relaxes a little,” she said.
Delaney and Jake Steel of Vancouver, Washington, attended an Alaska Airlines flight with their daughter, Knett in January 2024. They sat in five rows, on the other side of the hole in the gap. For nine months, Knenett was on Steele's rap.
Steel, 36, said the sudden loss of air pressure was “the loudest thing you've ever heard.” They had a hard time keeping their daughter oxygen masks.
The possibility that her child had been sucked out of the plane didn't hit Steele, 30, until they landed. She hasn't stepped on the plane since.
“I don't know how comfortable I am,” said Steele, who filed a lawsuit against Alaska Airlines and Boeing, the plane manufacturers, along with her husband. The couple has a second child of five months. “If they fly now before they turn two, it's only natural that they'll somehow get tied up.”
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