We recently took a cruise out of Port Canaveral; Florida which meant this would be Shaun and Shae’s first trip on an airplane. Melinda and I were a little nervous about how we would secure Shae in the airplane seat due to her age and size. We briefly thought about bringing her car seat but due to its size and weight we decided against that but thankfully we got the opportunity to analyse the CARES, Child Aviation Restraint System. CARES, the Child Aviation Restraint System, is the only harness type child aviation safety restraint ever certified for airplane travel by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
In September, 2006 the FAA announced it had certified CARES – the first and only alternative to a car seat permitted on planes. The certification gives parents the right to use CARES on all US airlines for all phases of flight: taxiing, take off, turbulence and landing. FAA regulators made it clear that airlines may not prevent parents from using CARES.
The CARES, Child Aviation Restraint System was pretty simple to use and installed in seconds demonstrated below in 5 easy steps:
- Seat your child in the airplane seat he or she will occupy.
- Lower the tray table behind your child’s seat.
- Slide the RED LOOP of the CARES restraint over the seat back, adjust the height of the RED LOOP so it is just above your child’s shoulders, and tighten it. Then close the tray table covering the Red Loop.
- Place the BLACK SHOULDER STRAPS over your child’s shoulders and slide the buckle and connecter ends of the regular airplane seat belt through the loops at the bottom of the BLACK SHOULDER STRAPS.
- Buckle the seat belt and pull it snugly across your child’s lap as you normally would do – and then buckle the chest clip and snug down the Shoulder Straps.
Your child is now safely buckled for taxiing, take off, landing and whenever during flight the Captain turns on the ‘fasten seat belt’ sign.
Shae was so cute on the plane and the CARES, Child Aviation Restraint System allowed us the same setup that we would get from her car seat. I think this is the best invention and feel more parents need to get this for there kids. We saw alot of small children going to and from Florida and not one child other then Shae was secured using something other then the standard seat belt. We even got a comment from the flight attendant saying she wishes more kids were restrainted using this system and she was so happy and excited to see us using one. CARES is the perfect alternative to a car seat and is light and fits nicely in your carry on luggage in the provided carrying bag.
If you are a parent and plan on traveling by air with your children you need to look into the CARES, Child Aviation Restraint System. To learn more about CARES and where you can purchase CARES click HERE.
