make sure to wear your seat belt when your plane crashes

From the AP's Matt Volz...

Federal transportation safety officials are using the deadly crash of an overloaded plane in Montana to revive a long-standing debate about whether small children should be allowed to travel on the laps of adults.

The 10-seater plane crashed as it was landing in Butte in March 2009, killing all 14 people aboard, including seven children. Investigators say that several of the children were found far from the plane, suggesting that they weren't properly restrained.

The National Transportation Safety Board is asking aviation regulators to require all passengers to have their own seats and seat belts, including children under the age of 2 who are now allowed to sit on an adult's lap during takeoff, landing and turbulence....

The crash was so severe that it's unlikely anybody would have survived even with proper restraints, but the "accident renews the NTSB's longstanding concerns" about the restraints, the recommendation reads....

But the FAA won't make it a requirement because the agency believes many families with small children wouldn't pay the cost of an extra ticket, and instead would travel by highway, which statistically is much more dangerous than air travel....The agency estimated then that a child-restraint requirement could result in 13 to 42 additional highway fatalities over 10 years....

Thankfully, a recognition of the costs and benefits of their recommendation-- and a (prohibitive) reluctance to mandate this, given the costs!