easyJet does not operate an indemnity policy and therefore under no circumstance, under the Child Protection Act, must another passenger be asked to accept responsibility during flight of an unaccompanied minor.
Am I missing something here? I interpret this a meaning the airline can not ask a fare paying pax to take care of an unaccompanied minor. The minor was not unaccompanied, and the airline did not ask a fare paying pax to look after them.
This would seem to be a misinterpretation of the rule quoted.
What right does any transport carrier of any type have to overrule a parent in this way? What would have happened if the mother had used the booster seat and carried her baby and then wanted to use the toilet? Would it have been allowed by the captain for the parent to give consent to a neighbouring volunteering pax to oversee 2 children for 5 minutes. Or would she have had to cross her legs for 2 hours.
Easy jet were quoted as saying that the safety of the passengers is their top priority. Correct. That means don't bend the a/c on takeoff or landing, and if they do, make sure all pax are best prepared to survive same said oopse daisy. That is where it stops. If all pax are strapped in and briefed, and all children are also secured in a booster seat or on a lap in a lap strap, then they have fulfilled their end of the bargain. (I don'tt want to get inot the discussion about abusive agressive pax. That is another mattere entirely.)
Regarding the question about whether a stanger would offer due care to the child in an evacuation is a matter for the parent and not the carrier. In the past, any minor had to have an accompanying adult. One parent + 2 young children might not have been allowed. Imagine one parent blocking an evac struggling with 2 screaming kids. Better to give one to another sane adult and risk fire and damnation from the crew, than not do so and go into the real fires, with a good many others, still stuck on board.
What's more, from posts above, it seems the crew were the only ones who wanted to do this. The pax supported the mother. Democracy did not rule on that day, neither did common sense.