For many parents, flying is expensive. One of the ways to travel for less if you have a child under the age of 2 is to fly with them in your lap, which saves you the cost of buying them a plane ticket. But after a door plug blew off of a since-grounded Alaska Airlines 737, safety experts are warning against the practice.
More from Mom.com: Mom on Alaska Airlines Flight Went Into ‘Go Mode’ When Door Blew off Next to Her Son
Having a child in your lap is a huge safety hazard
"If there had been a passenger holding a kid close to where that panel blew off, the explosive force was such that a kid being held would have been torn from the hands of their parent, and they would have been sucked out the plane," Kwasi Adjekum, an assistant professor at the University of North Dakota’s Department of Aviation, said when speaking to The Washington Post after the Alaska Airlines incident.
"The practice of holding kids on your lap, especially for takeoff and other vulnerable phases of flight — it’s highly frowned upon and discouraged."
Why wouldn't you want to keep your kid safe?
While it is certainly a more cost-effective option, you never know what could happen on a flight, like the Alaska Airlines incident.
"A kid in a car or passenger vehicle below a certain weight — they have to be in a car seat. So why would a parent be allowed to hold a kid in their lap on a commercial flight?" Anthony Brickhouse, an aerospace safety professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said in The Washington Post article.
There are a lot of dangers to consider
While the Alaska Airlines incident is an extreme example of something that could go wrong on a flight, even something like turbulence can be a danger to a child sitting in your lap.
"Your arms aren't capable of holding your in-lap child securely, especially during unexpected turbulence, which is the number one cause of pediatric injuries on an airplane," the FAA website says.
The safest thing is getting kids their own seat
Making sure that you have an FAA-approved car seat for your kids is the best thing you can do to keep them safe on a plane. The FAA advises that you confirm that the words "This restraint is certified for use in motor vehicles and aircraft" appear on your child's car seat for use on a plane.
