Recent airplane accidents have fueled concerns about whether young children are sufficiently protected on flights and prompted parents and caregivers to re-evaluate how, and even whether, they should fly with infants.
Three years later, Khadija Zaidi-Rashid still remembers the screams of other passengers, the unsettled expression on the flight attendant’s face and the helplessness she felt holding her infant on her lap.
Dr. Zaidi-Rashid, 34, then a doctoral student, was flying from Washington to Doha, Qatar, with her mother and two children when their airplane encountered severe turbulence. Her other child, a toddler, was in a seat next to her, and the half-hour of roller-coaster shaking and bucking felt like hours. Since then — though everyone emerged unscathed — she cannot get over the sense of worry on every flight she takes.
“The turbulence has caused me to feel claustrophobic, all kinds of motherhood-related anxiety,” she said, adding that she no longer sleeps during flights. She’s worried that her children, now older, will slip out of their seatbelts they are now required to have. She often keeps her hand on them as a precaution.
She’s not alone. In recent months, after a series of terrifying plane crashes and accidents on the tarmac, parents have swarmed online message boards and lit up group chats to unload their anxieties about upcoming flights and longstanding safety norms for family travel.
The accidents, which included a midair collision in Washington and a flipped-over plane in Toronto, have fueled concerns about whether young children on airplanes, particularly infants, are sufficiently protected. The worry has compelled some parents to rethink how they fly, with many considering options ranging from bringing car seats to canceling trips.