Transport Canada moves slowly on TSB child safety recommendations: TSB

This Perimeter Aviation Flight 993 crashed off the runway in Sanikiluaq Dec. 22, 2012. The TSB said Transport Canada has been slow to implement safety measures following the accident. (FILE PHOTO)

Efforts to make air travel safer for infants and young children in Canada have been slow to come, the Transportation Board of Canada said this week, following a Nunavut plane crash in 2012 that killed an infant passenger.

The TSB was following up a report and recommendations it released last June in response to a 2012 plane crash in Sanikiluaq, which killed a six-month-old baby boy.

The Dec. 22, 2012 Perimeter Aviation Flight 993 flight came in too high, too steep and too fast, TSB investigators found, injuring two crew members and six adult passengers, who suffered injuries ranging from minor to serious.

But six-month-old Isaac Appaqaq was thrown from his mother’s lap on impact and died from a head injury.

So as part of its report into the crash, the TSB asked Transport Canada to require commercial carriers to first collect and report data on the number of infant and toddler passengers they carry — statistics that are not currently available.

In response, Transport Canada has said it’s still looking at the best options for data collection, including a stakeholder consultation to be completed by March 2016.

“The actions proposed by TC constitute a first step in the right direction,” said TSB board member Joseph Hincke said in a Nov. 30 release.

“However, efforts to enhance safety for infants and children will continue to be delayed until more detailed information is available on emerging trends about the carriage of children aboard aircraft.”

For its part, the TSB said it gives the federal department a rating of “satisfactory intent” for its response.

In its report earlier this year, the TSB also called for the mandatory use of restraint systems for infants and toddlers flying on aircraft.

Transport Canada says it’s planning an awareness campaign on the risks to children travelling on commercial aircraft, while in the long-term, it will do an in-depth regulatory analysis.

But the board said Transport Canada has yet to identify any specific solutions, giving it a second rating of “satisfactory intent.”

On commercial flights, children aged two years old and under do not require their own seats and are most often held on the lap of a parent.

But the safest place for an infant or young child is buckled into their own seat, TSB investigators said following the 2012 crash.

Although some child restraint seating designed for cars can also be compatible in aircraft, the TSB wants Transport Canada to work with industry to develop age and size appropriate child restraint systems, and mandate their use.

“We think infants and children deserve an equivalent level of safety as adults on board aircraft, and that is why we are calling on Transport Canada and the aviation industry to take action,” said KSB chair Kathy Fox during a June 2015 news conference.

“It’s time to do right by our children.”