Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Attendant Current
Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Manuals; MEL; Human Factors
We were notified by Operations that our flight was going to be full and that we had a large number of lap children; who would not be occupying a seat. It was only when I did the passenger count that I discovered that we had 143 passengers in seats and 16 lap children. I asked the Operations Agent if there was a limit to how many lap children we were allowed to carry. He said it was 'Unlimited.' I thought it sounded strange; because I was always told if there were more than 150 passengers; we would need a 4th Flight Attendant. It was only after we were airborne that I thought about the number of life vests we had onboard. There are 143 under each of the seats; 4 crew member life vest and 10 spare. That [left] us 6 short for every person in the plane to have one. I researched this in the Flight Attendant Manual and did not see anything that limits the number of bodies we can have onboard.When I arrived at work today; I asked a supervisor and after some research it was determined that we were in violation of FAA Equipment minimums.
After departing with all seats full of adults plus 16 lap children a Flight Attendant became concerned; later investigated and determined they were in violation as the number of life vests aboard was six less than the number of passengers and crew.