Should babies, age 4 and under, be banned from commerical air flights?

Most of the safety devices in use for adults would be pointless anyway if the plane were to crash. People gotta travel with their kids.

There are plenty of regulations relative to traveling with an infant.
FAA Guidelines
How would you suggest families get around with their infants?

Air flight isn’t just for pleasure and leisure. It’s primarily for transportation. If a parent got a job offer in Hawaii and they have a toddler, are they supposed to take a boat to their new job or leave their children in the mainland until they are five? How would overseas adoptions work?

This SHOULD be about the noise they make. Babies should be banned from public places, period. Transgressions should be punishable by death for both the parent and the wretched creature. You have no idea how every time these disgusting creatures make noise, I am tempted to take an axe and solve that problem myself.

Blueiiznh, I thought this might cause some confusion, if I asked this question. I understand children have to fly with their parents or guardian. My question is that it seems that all the safety instructions on commerical aircraft are aimed at adults and not how to prepare an infant for any type of emergency oboard the aircraft.

@john65pennington: Maybe you should ask to have it removed, and change it, or edit it yourself if you still can. Maybe a better way to word it, if you meant it the way you described it just now, is “Should airline safety instructions be more explicitly detailed in how they pertain to infants?”

I think all people should be banned from airline flights, unless, of course, encased by coffins.

@john65pennington I agree that the only mention is related to the airmask. At the end of it all, I don’t think it is the Airlines responsibility to police the parent. The parent is the responsible party for their children.

Airlines have special seating for babies.

No! The airlines should make their own rules. If an airline wants to allow or disallow anyone for any reason on THEIR plane that should be their right.

@blueiiznh It’s true that the only mention for babies is related to the airmask, but even that airmask instruction is meant to protect the adult. I think @john65pennington is right, there should be at least a one-liner about child safety.

I would guess the reason they don’t give information about child safety is that these little speeches began before children were regular passengers on flights (is that the case?). Doubtless, the airlines think it’s hard enough to keep people in their seats and listening for the little safety information they currently pass on.

I bet if they said at the end of their spiel, “and for information about keeping your child safe in the event of an emergency, please visit this website” there would be a hue and cry about how they were not doing it on the plane.

no

That’s like banning a whole class of people (those with children under four) from flying. You can’t do that.

As LUCK is the biggest decider of whether or not you survive a plane crash: I’d vote no, we shouldn’t ban kids under 4.

I’m pretty sure those masks can be used on little people as there have probably been real life emergencies where the cabin has lost pressure and babies and toddlers have been on board and survived.

I had a special seatbelt when I travelled with my little one. It went through mine and around him on my lap. So…. yes, they do in fact have equipment for toddlers and I know they have special bassinet areas to strap babies in. I have seen this.

No way, that’s such a harsh violation of human rights.
Tie the little bastards to the wings, see how simple it is.

The flight I was on last week (trans-ocean) mentioned that flotation devices for infants and small children were located under the seats at the exits. They went on to say that for more information about baby/child safety, read the instructions in the seat back.

Well, no. Even if there isn’t anything specific for baby safety, if an accident on the plane occurs, everyone’s pretty much fucked, or at least the up fucking potential is there for everyone. In that logic, we should just ban airplanes all together, or airbags in cars that cause great injuries instead of preventing them.
Also if you gotta get somewhere with your baby, you gotta get somewhere with your baby.

Oh, come on – that is pure nonsense.