[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 136 (Friday, September 27, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11543-S11544]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. MURRAY:
  S. 2139. A bill to amend title 49, United States Code, to require the 
use of child safety restraint systems approved by the Secretary of 
Transportation on commercial aircraft, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.


               The Children's Airline Safety Act of 1996

 Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President I introduce legislation that would 
protect our Nation's small children as they travel on aircraft. We 
currently have Federal regulations that require the safety of 
passengers on commercial flights. However, neither flight attendants 
nor an infant's parents can protect unrestrained infants in the event 
of an airline accident or severe turbulence. A child on a parent's lap 
will likely break free from the adult's arms as a plane takes emergency 
action or encounters extreme turbulence.
  This child then faces two serious hazards. First, the child may be 
injured as they strike the aircraft interior. Second, the parents may 
not be able to find the infant after a crash. The United/Sioux City, IA 
crash provides one dark example. On impact, no parent was able to hold 
on to her/his child. One child was killed when he flew from his 
mother's hold. Another child was rescued from an overhead compartment 
by a stranger.
  In July 1994 during the fatal crash of a USAir plane in Charlotte, 
NC, another unrestrained infant was killed when her mother could not 
hold onto her on impact. The available seat next to the mother survived 
the crash intact. The National Transportation Safety Board believes 
that had the baby been secured in the seat, she would have been alive 
today. In fact, in a FAA study on accident survivability, the agency 
found that of the last nine infant deaths, five could have survived had 
they been in child restraint devices.
  Turbulence creates very serious problems for unrestrained infants. In 
four separate incidences during the month of June, passengers and 
flight attendants were injured when their flights hit sudden and 
violent turbulence. In one of these, a flight attendant reported that a 
baby seated on a passenger's lap went flying through the air during 
turbulence and was caught by another passenger. This measure is 
endorsed by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Aviation 
Consumer Action Project.
  We must protect those unable to protect themselves. Just as we 
require seatbelts, motorcycle helmets, and car seats, we must mandate 
restraint devices that protect our youngest citizens. I urge my 
colleagues to support

[[Page S11544]]

this legislation that ensures our kids remain passengers and not 
victims.
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