This is ridiculous. There are on the order of 10 million lap children per year. Over the last 40 years, it looks like there have been two lap children that di

This is ridiculous. There are on the order of 10 million lap children per year. Over the last 40 years, it looks like there have been two lap children that died that might not have had they been in a car seat on the plane. Over that 40 year period, that would be 400 million lap children, so the additional risk is about 1/200 million. If you figure a typical airline ticket costs about $150 each way, that comes to $30 billion per life saved. Bottom line is if you want to spend money on your kid's safety, buying them their own airline seat is probably the worst way you could do it. Of course parents always have the option to buy the extra seat if they want to, but to force parents to do this in the name of safety is asinine.