Toddler Forgotten at Airport

A family traveling in Canada were running to board a flight from Vancouver to Winnipeg, but they forgot a key member of their group. A 23 month-old little boy was left behind as his family scrambled to make their connections. The group was separated into two parts- the child’s father was ahead of the three other adults (his mother and two grandparents)- and each group thought the boy was with the other.

Because of their seating on the plane, none of the family members realized that the toddler was left behind.

Instead, in a scenario similar to the movie “Home Alone,” the toddler was wandering alone between a security checkpoint and the flight gates, said Angela Mah, an Air Canada representative.

“We were called by (security) who told us one of the security people had a toddler in tow,” Mah said. “He doesn’t speak English, so we found a Tagalog-speaking agent who has been looking after him.”

There was no boarding pass for the youngster because he did not have a separately assigned seat, so there was no indication in the airline’s computer system that someone had missed a flight, nor had there been any panicked calls from anyone on a flight missing a child, Mah said.

That’s because the family was scattered in different parts of the plane to Winnipeg and still didn’t know the child had been left.

Air Canada staff began checking flights that had left, and “we eventually determined who his parents might be … and the flight crew talked to them,” Mah said. “They didn’t realize until then that the baby had been left behind.

“We’re not aware of this ever happening on an Air Canada flight before.”

The boy’s father, Jun Parreno, was able to catch a flight back to Vancouver to recover his child. Air Canada covered the cost of that flight and the return flight to Winnipeg.

Some of the blame for this should, of course, fall on the parent’s shoulders. Why didn’t anyone make sure the baby was with someone else? Why didn’t someone say “Hey! Do you have the baby?” But at the same time I can see how it happened. The flurry of activity trying to get from here to there, on a deadline, with time running out and everyone expects the boy to be with one or the other. Who would think they could forget a child? It happens, unfortunately. Everyone’s in a hurry to do something and even the most important details can get overlooked. I think that when traveling parents put medical id bracelets engraved with their names on the small children. That way if something like this does happen (and I really don’t think they did this purposely), it’s much easier for the authorities to track parents down.

I’m just thankful the little guy didn’t get snatched by some kind of monster. His parents are lucky to have him back. I think if this had happened in parts of the U.S. they wouldn’t have had that chance.

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