NTSB Issues Safety Alert To Urge Parents To Use Child Restraint Devices

Posted on May 28, 2010

The National Transportation Safety Board today issued a Safety Alert to advise parents of the dangers to young children on aircraft when not restrained in an approved child restraint system or device. The Safety Alert notes that preventable injuries and deaths have occurred in children younger than 2 years who were unrestrained.

Specific child passenger safety issues on aircraft include the likelihood that parents and caregivers may not be able to maintain a secure hold on a lap-held child during turbulence and survivable accidents. Additionally, unrestrained children have become separated from their parents during survivable crashes and parents were unable to locate them during the evacuation.

"As the summer travel season gets underway, the NTSB would like to remind families traveling with children that child restraints are the best way to keep youngsters safe - whether traveling by car or air," said NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman. "While the NTSB would still like to see a federal regulation requiring the use of child restraints on aircraft, we continue to recommend that, when traveling by air, all parents purchase an airline ticket for every child in the family and place each child in a size-appropriate restraint system to ensure that everyone travels safely."

The Safety Alert can be found on the NTSB website here: http://ntsb.gov/alerts/SA_015.pdf. Additional information about past NTSB safety recommendations on child passenger safety on aircraft can be found on the website here: http://ntsb.gov/aviation/aviation.htm