Most Dangerous Airplane Seats for Kids

Aug. 31, 2010— -- Parents are legally required to place their young kids in car seats every time they get in the family vehicle. So why is it that children under the age of 2 can sit on their parent's lap when flying?

The National Transportation Safety Board wants to change that. The federal agency says that a large number of air plane crashes are actually survivable but only if everybody is buckled up. And as much as a mother or father might love their child, it is highly unlikely that they will be able to hold on tight enough during a crash to stop the baby from flying throughout the cabin.

"Most aviation accidents are survivable," said Nora Marshall, who oversees aviation survival factors for the NTSB. "Your child deserves the same level of protection that you're going to get with a restraint system."

So now the NTSB is pushing the Federal Aviation Administration to require child seats for infants. Currently the FAA says that only children over the age of 2 need their own seats. Everybody younger can fly on their parent's lap.

"Proper restraint use is one of the most basic and important tenets of crashworthiness and survivability," NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman wrote in a letter earlier this month to FAA Administrator J. Randolph Babbitt.

But don't expect any change soon. The NTSB has been seeking this change since 1979.

The key here is that airlines current let anybody under the age of 2 fly for free if they don't require their own seat. If all children needed to be in a car seat, the airlines would likely charge for that extra seat. In the past, the FAA has said that it believes the extra charge would force some families to drive instead of flying and that driving isn't as safe as flying.

"We don't have any immediate plans to change our rules, but we'll certainly take a fresh look at the board's recommendations," FAA spokeswoman Alison Duquette told ABC News.

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