A real life version of the big screen hit “Home Alone” took place in Canada on Monday and despite hearing the story multiple times I still don’t see how a 23-month-old boy could be “inadvertently” left behind in a gigantic airport.
So here’s the deal: According to The Vancouver Sun, a family immigrating to Canada from the Philippines claims the mix-up occurred during a last minute scramble to a catch their plane.
Jun Parreno, the boy’s father, told the paper he, his wife and the tot’s two grandparents were desperately trying to make their connecting flight from Vancouver to Winnipeg on Air Canada when they lost track of the child.
Okay, so I can see how that could have happened, but what I don’t understand is how it came to be that the boy’s parents didn’t learn he was missing until they were contacted by authorities during the next leg of their trip.
According to the boy’s father, the family was running late after having to unpack and repack all their luggage at a security checkpoint.
“We had 10 minutes before boarding,” Parreno told reporters. “We were running for the gate.”
In the mad dash to the gate Parreno says he thought his son was with his wife and other family members who were running to the gate ahead of him. Meanwhile, those relatives thought the little boy was with Parreno. But as it turns out the boy was nowhere near his family. According to airport officials, the child was found wandering alone between a security checkpoint and the flight gates.
When security agents approached the boy they found that he didn’t speak English and that he had no identification on him. Adding to the confusion was the fact that the boy was flying as a lap child and didn’t have a boarding pass assigned to him, so there was no indication in the airline’s computer system that someone had missed a flight. And the part that horrifies me—-no one from the boy’s family realized he was missing so authorities were never notified that a child was missing at the airport.
Parreno says that’s because his family was scattered in different parts of the plane bound for Winnipeg and each member thought the child was sitting with another.
It wasn’t until Air Canada staff members began an investigation that they eventually determined who the boy’s parents were. By then the Parreno’s plane was airborne. When the flight crew broke the news to the child’s dad that his son was still at the airport officials say Parreno told them that he didn’t realize the toddler had been left behind.
The story does have a happy ending. According to airlines officials, the boy’s father was put on another Air Canada flight back to Vancouver to get his son after the family’s flight arrived in Winnipeg.
And hats off to Air Canada, which covered the cost of the two additional flights that eventually reunited father and son.
Can you imagine this ever happening to you?
Traveling with children in the near future? Check out these blogs for helpful tips on making your next flight a smooth one:
Grandma Puts Baby Through Airport X-Ray Machine
The One Thing You DON’T Want To See On An Airplane
More Must-Have Items to Pack When Traveling with Children
Traveling With Children-Learn From My Mistakes
Flying with Children: Layover or Not?
Tips To Remember When Traveling With Children
Even More Tips To Remember When You Travel With Kids
More Tips To Remember When You Travel With Kids
Traveling With Young Children: More Dos and Don’ts
Traveling With Young Children: Dos and Don’ts
In Flight Diaper Changing Etiquette
Are Airlines Becoming More Family Friendly?