Transport Canada has responded to two recommendations from the country’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB) to improve the safety of children traveling on commercial aircraft, including on-demand and air-taxi operations using business aircraft. The first recommendation requires operators to report on a routine basis the number of infants (under two years old) and young children (two to 12 years old) traveling. Transport Canada said it is working to determine the best options for collecting this data, including a stakeholder consultation to be completed before March.

 

The second recommendation calls for Transport Canada to develop infant and young-child restraint systems and mandate their use. Transport Canada said that, in the short term, it will explore ways to increase the range of infant/child restraint systems approved for use in aircraft. In the medium term, it is planning an awareness campaign focused on risks to children traveling on commercial aircraft. And in the long term, it will initiate an in-depth regulatory examination into these issues next year.

 

These recommendations stem from the TSB’s investigation into the crash of a Perimeter Aviation Fairchild Swearingen Metro III on Dec. 22, 2012, in which an infant was killed. The infant was held on the mother's lap without any restraint system. Although Transport Canada recommends that infants be restrained in an approved restraint system, it is not mandatory.