No seatbelts for infants! [Comair]
 

We were on a BA flight (operated by Comair) today from Johannesburg to Cape Town with AllActionBaby (who should probably now be called AllActionToddler) and after the safety video as we were taxiing I asked for a seatbelt for her.

The FA told us that they don’t advise use of infant seatbelts as if we had to adopt the brace position the buckle on the adult belt and their buckle could potentially hurt the child. Surely the potential of being thrown up into the air if we hit turbulence or something is just as bad?? Also if you have a wriggly toddler who wants to run around the seatbelt is a good way of securing them!

I spent the whole flight hanging on to her for dear life :eek:

has as anyone else ever heard of this??

Flew AA domestic and there was no belt provided which suprised me at the time.

Different country’s have different rules, each if them think they are right!

I saw it on UA, and was very surprised too.

I wonder which method is actually the best one, in practice.

Every nation gets to make its own laws and thus rules. You may be used to UK or Chinese law, but you were in South Africa.

The most current science suggests that in a crash, a child not large enough to be strapped into his own seat or strapped into an approved child seat which locks into the aircraft seat with its own approved mechanism ---- lap child ---- should be held but not attached to the adult or to a seat.

Whether that is the case may say something about whether UK or South African rules are "better" but the fact is they are what they are.

We've just completed a few flights across the us and back to England with our 3 month old.

For the tatl we had the boy in a car seat which was an excellent solution for all as it gave us plenty of space and somewhere to park him.

On the domestics (AA) we held him throughout except for one flight where he had fallen asleep strapped to wife in sling when we were boarding. The FA said she had to inform us that the safest way was to have him unstrapped due to the requirements of the brace position.

A lot easier to hold a three month old than a toddler though I'd imagine!

Interestingly we flew comair about 3 weeks ago and we were given an infant seat belt for our little girl. Guess they couldn’t find the one for your flight or the rules changed in the last 3 weeks....it’s africa so perfectly possible

So is a straight jacket :rolleyes:

As for your other concern... The risk of you not being able to hold onto your child in an emergency is far lower than the certainty of serious internal damage to the child in the same emergency.

For someone who claims to be so concerned about their child, I find it strange that you have not considered an FAA approved car seat.

Accident scene with unconscious motorcyclist.

German driving test: Remove helmet.
UK driving test: Do not remove helmet.

Yes interesting which one is right. UK because if a brain trauma removal of helmet by a non medic could cause more damage is the thought behind it.

On the seat belt item I was told it is against FAA regulations from infants to use the lap belts for some of the reasons given above on safety in crash landing.
This maybe so but I would much rather have a baby strapped in in case of unforseen turbulance. Holding a baby tight in your hands for a transatlantic trip for so many hours is asking for trouble in the event of sudden turbulence. Much to be said for having an infant in their own seat even if they have to be on lap for take off and landing and unfortunately turbulance with no belt.

Hello everyone - first time post after a long time lurking...

We have seen this a few times on Comair when travelling with a toddler and a baby. As mentioned above, it is due to the South African regulations. However, the crew happily have us child extension seatbelts after we pointed out that we would prefer the potential risk from seatbelt buckle injuries to that from turbulence. My understanding is that they are carried on all flights but not proactively offered.

The assumption with a seat belt extender is that you will crush your child during a severe accident, but the child will not fly through the cabin to injure someone else. Those incidents are rare, but that's the general gist of it.

You have already decided against safety if you fly with a child in your lap, so I'm not really interested in the totally irrelevant opinions you may have on how that is safe.

Thanks for sharing these experiences LondonLondon, and welcome to Flyertalk and a particular welcome to the BA board. There would not be much to see here but for contributions from people like you, so many thanks, and I hope will see more. On this one, it would be very difficult, as a globe-trotting parent, to try and rationalise this issue.

Or USA you don’t need to wear a helmet

As others have alluded to, in the US the second belt for an infant is not allowed. The AA flight attendants seemed confused when we requested one. (Our son's first four flights were on BA, before we had ever flown a US domestic segment).