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Comment by moltar | Hacker News Reader

> When the seat belt light blinks on, every passenger buckles up except for one group of fliers: lap-babies.

That’s not how it works though. At least not on the flights I have been.

We were given a special, additional seat belt, that loops over the adult one, and goes over the baby. And the airlines were enforcing it as much as the adult one.

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It’s addressed in the article:

“On many foreign carriers, parents can (loosely) secure their child with a belly loop belt that wraps around the baby’s torso and attaches to the adult’s seat belt. However, the FAA prohibits this accessory on U.S. carriers because of its potential dangers.”

Fwiw when I’ve used the baby-belts they felt very secure. Always wondered why US airlines didn’t use them.

> Fwiw when I’ve used the baby-belts they felt very secure. Always wondered why US airlines didn’t use them.

There appear to be very good reasons.

From the Study on Child Restraint Systems: Final Report produced by TÜV Rheinland for the European Aviation Safety Agency in 2008 [0]:

–quote–

The loop belt is derived from the normal lap belt (width, material, buckle). The normal lap belt is designed to support the webbing on the iliac crest of the adult. In biomechanical terms, the adult is restrained by the lap belt over his or her iliac crest in an accident (cf. section 2.1.1). In infants, however, the iliac crest is not yet fully developed. The loop belt therefore rests by almost 100 percent within the infant’s abdominal region. The induction of forces into the abdominal region of the infant results in extremely serious internal injuries.

For this reason, the loop belt is no safety system for infants in turbulence, aborted take-off, hard landing, in emergency landing conditions and other accidents.

Furthermore, the infant is seated within the adult’s excursion path. Dummy tests in emergency landing dynamic conditions illustrate the situation of an infant fixed with a loop belt on the lap of an adult. They show the following pattern:

The inertia forces resulting from the mass of the infant and the effective accelerations affect the abdomen of the infant via the loop belt. Since the abdomen cannot induce exterior forces, the loop belt drives into the soft parts. The infant is additionally loaded by the pressure of the downward movement of the adult’s upper torso and his or her femurs hitting upwards. The loop belt drives through the infant’s abdomen and only stops at the vertebral spine. The adult hits onto the infant. The infant is pushed through the legs of the adult and hits onto the floor.

Infants fixed with a loop belt suffer extremely serious to fatal injuries due to their position within the adult’s excursion path and due to the restraint method.

–end quote–

[0] https://www.icao.int/safety/airnavigation/OPS/CabinSafety/Ca... (pp. 74-75)

Sounds terrible, but it doesn't address the issue with simple turbolence, which seems to be a major issue without the lap belt. Isn't turbolence way more common than emergency landing?

This happened whenever the seatbelt sign was on, or only when it was on because of turbulence? We have never been offered that, and I've never seen other passengers offered such a thing. I've mostly flown in the US though; perhaps you are elsewhere?

Really? We flew for years when both our kids were infants and toddlers, through North America, Europe, Australia, and SE Asia. Every flight gave us an extra lap belt for any child that was too small to for a seat of their own (and almost always a “we’ll come and find you once most the passengers have boarded, we’ll need to give you a special seatbelt…” as we stepped on board and they checked out ticket). They’d always give us a special safety demonstration despite having used the belts dozens of times. If we had a bulkhead seat with a bassinet you’d have to take the child out of the bassinet and strap them into the belt on your lap if the seatbelt light came on.

I’m mostly stunned our experiences are so extremely opposite. As I’ve never not seen this!

Completely the opposite. Our kids were born in the last decade, and we only traveled in the continental US with them. Wish we'd gotten the same offers as your family.

Mine are under 10 too. In the US we probably only flew Alaskan and American Airlines. So maybe it was unique to them?

We flew last week non US Oman Air, and got a baby belt, but not on a domestic flight in the Philippines.

Maybe it's not required for us domestic? Domestic flights have more flexible regulation generally.

Is this a new thing? My kids are <10 years old, but we flew a ton when each of them were under 2 and I don’t recall getting a supplemental belt once. This was pretty much exclusively on Southwest, though.

No, it's just something the 95% of the world outside the US does.

I flew two flights last week with a lap-child and didn't see this. The in flight info just indicated to hold on tight in an emergency.

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