Federal authorities warn parents against carrying infants on laps during flights, after recent mid-air explosion on Alaska Airlines renews concerns about what happens to unsecured babies are doing.
All 171 passengers and six crew members miraculously survived when the door plug broke at 16,000 feet, leaving a gaping hole that revealed the night sky.
However, the rapid decompression sucked two mobile phones, a seat headrest and a shirt out of the teenager's back.
The items were later found on roadsides and in Portland residents' backyards after jumping from thousands of feet.
Experts said if the plane had just taken off and the seatbelt sign had not been on, it likely would have ended in disaster.
However, three passengers on board the Boeing 737 were not wearing seatbelts.
“There were three infants on the plane held in the laps of their caregivers,” National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told reporters at a news conference Sunday.
In the United States, infants under the age of two can fly for free and do not need to purchase a separate ticket. Alternatively, they can be held on a parent or guardian's lap, but that means the adult's arms are the only ones holding them in place.
“If there had been a passenger holding a child near where the panel blew off, the force of the explosion would have ripped the child from the parent's hands and sucked him out of the plane.” University of North Dakota Kwasi Agyekum, assistant professor at the School of Aeronautics, said: told the Washington Post.
Flight attendants on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 immediately became concerned about the three infants and four unaccompanied minors on board and made sure they were safe, Homendy said.
Crew members are now dealing with “a lot of trauma” from the “horrifying” experience, where communication with the cockpit was nearly impossible due to wind blowing through holes in the side of the jet. Added a chair.
Homendy used Sunday's briefing on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 to talk about how the Federal Aviation Administration has cleared children under the age of 2 to be safe in the event of something like Friday's horrific explosion. He appealed directly to his parents to let him sit in his own seat on the airline.
“The NTSB has long recommended it, the Federal Aviation Administration has recommended it for years, and Alaska Airlines also has a website that allows caregivers and people traveling with infants under 2 years old to purchase seats for their infants. , we recommend that children sit in their own child seats, “to strap them in to ensure safety,'' she said.
Aircraft carriers provide a safety measure not only in the event of an extreme incident where part of the plane is damaged, but also in the event of more general turbulence events.
“The practice of holding children on your lap, especially during take-off and other dangerous stages of flight, is highly frowned upon and discouraged,” Agyekum said.
