Allow babywearing carriers on planes
Jeff Kaufman argues the FAA should allow soft babywearing carriers during flight takeoff and landing, noting current bans rely on flawed 1990s regulatory comparisons.
summary is enough The post provides a neat critique of aviation rulemaking, but the core points about regulatory history and safety trade-offs can be grasped quickly.
summary
The author criticizes FAA rules prohibiting soft babywearing carriers during aircraft takeoff and landing. This policy originates from 1995 tests that evaluated car seats and belly belts but failed to test soft carriers or compare them against the baseline safety of holding an infant in one's arms. While commercial aviation is extremely safe, the author contends that banning carriers creates unnecessary friction based on incoherent logic.
key points
- FAA regulations under 14 CFR 121.311 explicitly ban infants from using restraining devices during takeoff and landing.
- The underlying 1995 rule was based on tests of rigid car seats and belly belts, omitting soft babywearing carriers and lap-holding alternatives.
- Commenters note that 9G sled tests show commercial infant carriers fail in major crashes, though holding a baby in bare arms offers zero protection.
who should read it
Parents, frequent flyers, and readers interested in administrative policy and aviation safety.
discussion mixed
consensus
Commenters debate whether the inconvenience of waking sleeping babies outweighs the severe crash physics and crush injury risks associated with soft carriers.
pushback
A minority argues that even if carriers fail extreme crash tests, they provide superior protection against turbulence compared to simply holding a baby.
From sled tests done by Australia in 2022:
> A lap-belt restrained adult dummy in an aircraft seat, with an infant dummy in a carrier, was subjected to a 9G dynamic sled test. The severity of the pulse was based on the results of a static load test. The commercially available infant carriers tested were not able to restrain infants under crash situations.
https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/research-and-analysis-r...
It introduces concrete empirical data from a 2022 Australian sled test showing commercial infant carriers fail under 9G crash conditions.
Generated by an LLM from the article and thread. Check the sources before relying on it.