Letters to FAA Administrator Babbitt | 2011
To whom it may concern:
I am sure you know as well as I do that no individual tragedy is more devastating to a parent than the loss of a child. I know this as a fact
- not, thankfully, from my own experience, but from my service as Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. On far too many occasions I have met, sat with, listened to, and sometimes held, parents whose grief was more than any human heart can hold.
We must ensure that all children in airplanes are buckled up in child safety seats or seat belts. It is astonishing that regulations require
everything in an airplane to be secured during takeoff, landing, and turbulence - except our smallest children. My accident investigation experience has shown that it can be impossible for a parent to hold onto a child during an airline crash sequence or even mild turbulence.
We all know the stories about injuries and fatalities to small children, but I had a case with an unexpected twist in the late 1990’s. While
airliner was cruising near Palm Beach, Florida, a mother lost control of her in-lap infant when the baby flew out of her arms during an in-flight loss of control. Fortunately the baby was caught by a passenger seated several rows away and was not injured. However, the frantic mother released her seatbelt to retrieve her baby and, because of the extreme motions of the airplane, became the only occupant to sustain serious injuries. It is in the best interest of all passengers, younger and older, for Child Restraint Seats to become mandated in all forms of Aviation.
Access to information concerning this issue is crucial. Could you imagine doctors not releasing important information about specific, preventable conditions for young children? It seems absurd, but that is a reality with regards to the FAA and Child Restraint Seats. We, as parents and concerned citizens, deserve access to the valuable information in all its forms.
The FAA needs to release the studies, reports, and records for the public in order to best keep our children safe from harm. I have said before that the industry prefers economics over safety.
Let's work together this year, as we have so well in the past, to use the technology available, the resources at our disposal, and our compassion to prevent the needless injury or loss of more of our most precious resource - our children. It can be done. We need to make sure all children are properly restrained during takeoff and landing, and during times of turbulence.
Sincerely,
James E. Hall
Managing Partner
Hall & Associates
I am sure you know as well as I do that no individual tragedy is more devastating to a parent than the loss of a child. I know this as a fact
- not, thankfully, from my own experience, but from my service as Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. On far too many occasions I have met, sat with, listened to, and sometimes held, parents whose grief was more than any human heart can hold.
We must ensure that all children in airplanes are buckled up in child safety seats or seat belts. It is astonishing that regulations require
everything in an airplane to be secured during takeoff, landing, and turbulence - except our smallest children. My accident investigation experience has shown that it can be impossible for a parent to hold onto a child during an airline crash sequence or even mild turbulence.
We all know the stories about injuries and fatalities to small children, but I had a case with an unexpected twist in the late 1990’s. While
airliner was cruising near Palm Beach, Florida, a mother lost control of her in-lap infant when the baby flew out of her arms during an in-flight loss of control. Fortunately the baby was caught by a passenger seated several rows away and was not injured. However, the frantic mother released her seatbelt to retrieve her baby and, because of the extreme motions of the airplane, became the only occupant to sustain serious injuries. It is in the best interest of all passengers, younger and older, for Child Restraint Seats to become mandated in all forms of Aviation.
Access to information concerning this issue is crucial. Could you imagine doctors not releasing important information about specific, preventable conditions for young children? It seems absurd, but that is a reality with regards to the FAA and Child Restraint Seats. We, as parents and concerned citizens, deserve access to the valuable information in all its forms.
The FAA needs to release the studies, reports, and records for the public in order to best keep our children safe from harm. I have said before that the industry prefers economics over safety.
Let's work together this year, as we have so well in the past, to use the technology available, the resources at our disposal, and our compassion to prevent the needless injury or loss of more of our most precious resource - our children. It can be done. We need to make sure all children are properly restrained during takeoff and landing, and during times of turbulence.
Sincerely,
James E. Hall
Managing Partner
Hall & Associates
Dear Mr. Babbitt:
Thank you for your recent letter to Jan Brown with whom I have been working on the child seat issue. It is heartening to know of your interest in addressing the current FAA policy which allows little children to be held on a parent’s lap during commercial airline flights.
I respectfully submit that the FAA needs to replace that policy with a clear, enforceable mandate that air travelers under age two ride in a secure child safety seat or child restraint system (CRS). That change would save lives and prevent serious injuries.
The agency’s present permissiveness in this regard is dangerous in the extreme because, by permitting the practice, the FAA actually encourages parents to believe that the practice is safe.
It’s far from safe.
So-called lap children have been killed in airline crashes and turbulence their parents have survived. Two lap children died in the crash of a DC 9 in Charlotte in 1994. In the crash of United 232 at Sioux City in 1989, one lap child was killed and another was thrown more than 15 rows and landed in an overhead bin.
This is more than a “kids” issue. Any passenger on a flight with a lap child is at risk because a 15 pound toddler can become a 75 pound cannon ball if thrust in turbulence.
Several very credible bodies have sought an aviation child seat mandate, including the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National Association of Flight Attendants.
In the past, the FAA’s stance has been that parents would balk at paying for the necessary additional seats and opt for their cars, a move which, the FAA claims, would lead to more deaths. I must respectfully question the FAA’s expertise when it comes to highway travel.
The NTSB, a knowledgeable federal government body when it comes to highway safety, has put forth data that runs contrary to the FAA’s assertion. The NTSB found no corresponding increases in highway deaths during three periods in which air travel declined markedly, specifically during the 1981 air traffic controller’s strike, the 1991 Gulf War, and following the September 11, 2001, terrorists attacks. The FAA’s cost argument also ignores the fact that families pay for seats for the many children over age two who fly every day.
An official from an FAA lab in Oklahoma City said that the agency would not act on the issue until there were “enough deaths.” Former U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo has called the FAA’s approach to air safety its “tombstone policy” in her book Flying Blind, Flying Safe.
The ironies in the FAA present policy are evident.
Families buckle Baby safely into a car seat when they drive to the airport at 30 to 65 miles per hour on well paved roads. Then they board a metal tube and travel with Baby on Mom’s knee at more than 500 miles per hour with the chance of encountering strong turbulence, a sudden downdraft, or worse. All that despite the fact that many car seats are approved for use as CRS on planes. Passengers must secure their laptops, but kids can ride held only in a parent’s fragile grasp.
In its refusal thus far to mandate CRS use, the FAA ignores the simple fact of life that it often takes a mandate to get people to do what common sense tells them is right. Some years ago, it took mandates to get adults to buckle up in cars, and it took more mandates to get kids in car safety seats.
I write this letter in my capacity as a member of SSEAT (Safe Seats for Every Air Traveler), recently founded by Jan Brown who was the lead flight attendant on United 232 and John Goglia, an air safety professional and a former NTSB member. Jan has fought for a CRS mandate, testifying before Congress, and lobbying the NTSB and the FAA.
I thank for your attention in this matter and would be more than happy to answer your questions and I thank you for considering this.
Respectfully submitted,
Bob Mackin
Principal
Mackin & Casey
Thank you for your recent letter to Jan Brown with whom I have been working on the child seat issue. It is heartening to know of your interest in addressing the current FAA policy which allows little children to be held on a parent’s lap during commercial airline flights.
I respectfully submit that the FAA needs to replace that policy with a clear, enforceable mandate that air travelers under age two ride in a secure child safety seat or child restraint system (CRS). That change would save lives and prevent serious injuries.
The agency’s present permissiveness in this regard is dangerous in the extreme because, by permitting the practice, the FAA actually encourages parents to believe that the practice is safe.
It’s far from safe.
So-called lap children have been killed in airline crashes and turbulence their parents have survived. Two lap children died in the crash of a DC 9 in Charlotte in 1994. In the crash of United 232 at Sioux City in 1989, one lap child was killed and another was thrown more than 15 rows and landed in an overhead bin.
This is more than a “kids” issue. Any passenger on a flight with a lap child is at risk because a 15 pound toddler can become a 75 pound cannon ball if thrust in turbulence.
Several very credible bodies have sought an aviation child seat mandate, including the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National Association of Flight Attendants.
In the past, the FAA’s stance has been that parents would balk at paying for the necessary additional seats and opt for their cars, a move which, the FAA claims, would lead to more deaths. I must respectfully question the FAA’s expertise when it comes to highway travel.
The NTSB, a knowledgeable federal government body when it comes to highway safety, has put forth data that runs contrary to the FAA’s assertion. The NTSB found no corresponding increases in highway deaths during three periods in which air travel declined markedly, specifically during the 1981 air traffic controller’s strike, the 1991 Gulf War, and following the September 11, 2001, terrorists attacks. The FAA’s cost argument also ignores the fact that families pay for seats for the many children over age two who fly every day.
An official from an FAA lab in Oklahoma City said that the agency would not act on the issue until there were “enough deaths.” Former U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo has called the FAA’s approach to air safety its “tombstone policy” in her book Flying Blind, Flying Safe.
The ironies in the FAA present policy are evident.
Families buckle Baby safely into a car seat when they drive to the airport at 30 to 65 miles per hour on well paved roads. Then they board a metal tube and travel with Baby on Mom’s knee at more than 500 miles per hour with the chance of encountering strong turbulence, a sudden downdraft, or worse. All that despite the fact that many car seats are approved for use as CRS on planes. Passengers must secure their laptops, but kids can ride held only in a parent’s fragile grasp.
In its refusal thus far to mandate CRS use, the FAA ignores the simple fact of life that it often takes a mandate to get people to do what common sense tells them is right. Some years ago, it took mandates to get adults to buckle up in cars, and it took more mandates to get kids in car safety seats.
I write this letter in my capacity as a member of SSEAT (Safe Seats for Every Air Traveler), recently founded by Jan Brown who was the lead flight attendant on United 232 and John Goglia, an air safety professional and a former NTSB member. Jan has fought for a CRS mandate, testifying before Congress, and lobbying the NTSB and the FAA.
I thank for your attention in this matter and would be more than happy to answer your questions and I thank you for considering this.
Respectfully submitted,
Bob Mackin
Principal
Mackin & Casey