Their comment about the brace position is probably valid, but statistically you're more likely to experience turbulence than a crash. Good luck holding on to a toddler during turbulence.

The explanation given by the dismal scientists at the FAA is that they would really like to require all infants to be in a car seat in their own plane seat, but their statistics show that the increased cost to families in terms of additional tickets would encourage too many to them to chose to drive to their USA domestic destination rather than fly the whole family. And a baby in a parents' lap on a plane is several orders of magnitude safer on the trip than a baby in a car seat in a personal car/SUV/minivan.

So it's a trade off for greater safety throughout the transit process.

Latam Chille strange rule

Todllers can seat in Business Class only if they have separate sit and approved car/airplane seat!!!
so inflant belt not needed at all....but sepearate seat needed....in Economy no problem....

, good what I find out at Rio before boarding for connection to SCL where we have 3 seats in IPC
(2 Adults ,1 4 YearOld and 1 Year old toddler) in the end we got refund for tickets and extended our stay at Rio for 7 more days but we couldn't spend Easter 2016 on Easter Island :(

Which rules apply to a flight that crosses borders, e.g. UK -> SA in this instance and the reverse? Would it be that of the departing country or that of where the airline is registered (which might not always be obvious)?

Operating procedures are usually those of the country of registration.

Interesting. We just got back and had 2 internal flights with Comair. Both cases no belt for the little one. But to be honest I don't know what the right answer truly is re safety in the event of something going wrong, and in any case he wriggled like crazy when awake anyway (he's a very active 15m) so it's pretty much moot whether we have one or not (as it was on the LHR to / from JNB flights) so I didn't give it much thought, and just did as I was told.

BA are far from being the only airline that won't allow rear facing only car seats to be used on board, I was surprised to find out quite how many there are

Regulations apply from the country in which the aircraft is registered.

Many US states require a helmet.

Watching Air Emergency one night (don't remember the particular crash-but it was US), the FA advised a woman with lap child to assume the crash position and hold the child against the floor-those where the airlines guidelines. Mother lived. She never saw her child again. A crash is always unlikely, but I simply cannot see how its possible to secure a baby 8-30 pounds with your arms/hands in the event of an emergency. After that, we get a seat and put them in it.

The safest way of traveling with infants is with a car seat. BA's regulations don't make sense at all (forward versus rear-facing). They don't even allow car seats for infants under 6 months, when they are at their most fragile. That is outrageous from a safety standpoint. I just wouldn't fly with BA. I've heard their customer service is horrendous, anyway. Whatever airline you fly with, definitely print out their rules from their website; in my experience, flight crew more often than not do not know their own rules with regards to car seats.

As for a 5 point versus 3 point harness, are you sure yours is not a 5 point? Every car seat I've looked at has a 5-point harness system.

But newborns are not supposed to be placed in car seats for hours at a time. So I guess banning car seats for very young babies is good for the vast majority of infants who travel safely, but less so in the event of a serious incident.

This is an obnoxious way to voice your opinion or criticize someone you do not know without the full set of facts. Consider this:
The most dangerous part of any airplane trip is the drive to and from the airport. Given this, if there is a choice between spending money on an extra seat on the plane and spending money to take a larger and safer vehicle to the airport, the money is almost certainly better spend on the latter.

Of course, if you have unlimited resources, you might choose to do both. However, every parent makes decisions--implicitly or explicitly--regarding safety. The decision to take a child out of the house, to take them on a plane (even in a car seat), to take them in a car, to expose them to places that might have lower standards of safety or healthcare than the place in which you live, etc. all have safety risks. A very rational person, however, can conclude that the benefits outweigh the risks. Even you, taking your child on a trip (with a car seat) increased the risk to that child. I do not blame you (I made the same decision), but let's at least pause to acknowledge that we are making trade offs and that other rational people could disagree.

They're not supposed to be placed in their car seats all day every day. A few hours while flying is fine.

Aa
 

The recommended time is no more than 2 hours in a car seat at a time, indeed when my 16m old was born I was recommended no more than an hour