Is it safe to hold my baby in my arms while flying on an airplane?

Is it safe to hold my baby in my arms while flying on an airplane?

Stephanie Tombrello (Child Passenger Safety Educator & Executive Director, SafetyBeltSafe USA) gives expert video advice on: Is it safe to hold my baby in my arms while flying on an airplane?; Can my child use his car safety seat in an airplane?; Where is the safest place to seat my child on an airplane? and more...

Safety seats and travel vests, and all the products to hold a child in a moving vehicle are predicated on the fact that they're attached to the frame of the vehicle. When your child is attached to your body, that is not something that is rigid and will take the force of a crash appropriately. What will happen is your body is going to bend in half, and you are going to crush the child if the child's attachment to you even holds. So snugglies, and front packs, and belly belts, and all the gadgets that parents are sold that are meant to be used when they're walking around outside are not to be used in a moving vehicle. The forces are very great. Many people don't understand that at 30 miles an hour, everything is going to move so that it is the equivalent of weighing 30 times what it weighs for real. So if you weigh 100 pounds, at 30 miles an hour you're a 3000 pound force. Your 10 pound baby is a 300 pound force. That's why even a muscle man can't hold a child in a low speed crash.