Federal officials are warning parents not to hold their babies in their laps while flying after a recent mid-air explosion on an Alaska Airlines flight renewed concerns about what could happen to an unsecured baby.
All 171 passengers and six flight crew miraculously survived the flight when the door plug snapped at 16,000 feet — revealing the night sky through the gaping hole it left behind.
A quick drop in pressure, however, sucked out two cell phones, a seat headrest and a shirt from a teenage boy’s back.
The items were later found on the side of the road and in the backyards of Portland residents after they plunged thousands of feet.
Experts say if the plane had not just taken off and the seat belt sign was not on, it would have likely ended in disaster.
However, the three passengers of the Boeing 737 were not wearing seat belts.
“On board the plane were three babies held in the custodian’s arms,” National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told reporters at a press conference Sunday.
Federal officials are warning parents not to hold babies during flights in case of another explosion in the air. grinvalds The hole left on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 MAX after its fuselage plug blew off the plane during a flight last week over Oregon. via REUTERS
Infants under the age of 2 can fly for free and do not need a separate plane ticket in the US. Instead, they can be held on their parent’s or guardian’s lap — but that means the only thing keeping them in place is the adult’s arm.
“If there was a passenger holding a child close to where the panel blew, the force of the explosion was such that a child being held would be torn from their parent’s arms, and they would be sucked out of the plane,” Kwasi Adjekum, an assistant professor at the University of North Dakota Department of Aviation, told the Washington Post.
Homendy said flight attendants aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 were immediately concerned about the three infants and four unaccompanied minors on board and made sure they were all safe.
During the turbulent flight on January 5, seat belt signs were on, but the three passengers on board the Boeing 737 were not wearing seat belts. AP
The attendants are now dealing with “a lot of trauma” coming from the “terrifying” experience where communication with the cockpit and each other was almost impossible due to howling winds that were allowed in through holes in the side of the jet, seats added.
Homendy took a moment from Sunday’s briefing on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 to directly urge parents to put their children under the age of 2 in their own seat on an airline approved by the Federal Aviation Administration so they are safe in the event of something like the horrific explosion at Friday happened.
“The NTSB has long recommended and the Federal Aviation Administration has long recommended and Alaska Airlines on their website also recommends that caregivers or those accompanying infants under the age of 2 to purchase a seat for the infant and put them in their own car seat and to bind them to ensure safety,” he said.
Infants under the age of 2 can fly for free and do not need a separate plane ticket in the US. Instead, they can be held on their parent’s or guardian’s lap — but that means the only thing keeping them in place is the adult’s arm. kieferpix
Carriers are not only a safety measure during extreme events such as part of the plane breaking off, but also during more common turbulence events.
“The practice of holding a child on your lap, especially for take-off and other vulnerable phases of flight — it is highly frowned upon and discouraged,” said Adjekum.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
