To pack in more, airline seats older kids on laps Read more: To

[erragulabi]

Can an airline allow passengers to seat children on their laps – like infants – to pack in flyers beyond capacity? Shocking as it may sound, the government's aviation safety regulator warned a leading low-cost carrier after finding seven children had been seated on their parents' laps on a flight.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) asked the airline to sack staffers who let grown up children fly as infants. While children up to two years of age can fly seated on a parent's lap, those between two and 12 years of age have to be given a seat as per safety norms and also for the comfort of fellow passengers.

The first-of-its-kind breach was brought to the DGCA's notice when a passenger on the flight complained to the DGCA that the plane had more people on board than seats. An inquiry, based on which the regulator has acted now, reveals that the situation arose on SpiceJet's Mumbai-Delhi flight (SG 103) on June 2, 2010. The airline was supposed to operate a Boeing 737-900 (VT-SGB) with 212 passengers and nine 'infants' at 12.45pm. At the last moment, the aircraft developed a snag and was replaced with a smaller Boeing 737-800 (VT-SPF), which has a seating capacity of 189.