Allow Carriers on Planes

The author argues that FAA policy barring babywearing carriers during ground movement, takeoff, and landing is incoherent and likely unsafe compared with the common alternative of holding infants on laps. Current regulation (14 CFR 121.311.b.1) and FAA guidance forbid carriers for lap infants, a policy rooted in 1994-96 testing that compared booster seats, car-seat-style carriers, harnesses, a belly belt, and lap belts but did not evaluate modern soft babywearing carriers or the real-world lap-holding baseline. The FAA concluded some devices might be worse than allowable alternatives, citing poor performance of a tested belly belt and international differences with the UK and Europe, and emphasized concern that mandating restraints would push some families to drive.

The author critiques that reasoning: the key substitution effects the FAA sensibly considered when allowing lap infants were not balanced here, and the empirical basis ignored contemporary carriers and failed to test lap-holding. Given modern carriers’ likely advantages during turbulence, crashes, and evacuations, the default should be to allow or at least test them rather than prohibit. A 2024 congressional proposal to permit carriers stalled, and although the practical harm of the ban is modest (mainly inconvenience), the ban remains a clear example of uneven, poorly balanced rulemaking.