Passenger says toddler on Porter Airlines flight in Canada was not unruly but simply scared
A Canadian airline was forced to cancel a cross-country flight last week after a small child would not sit down and buckle a seat belt before takeoff.
The incident occurred late at night, and the passengers on the Porter Airlines flight from Victoria to Toronto ended up being stranded overnight because the runway at Victoria International Airport closes at 12.30am.
Porter Airlines flight PD444 had left the terminal at the airport in the west coast city and was headed for the runway when crew members saw a young child who was “standing in their seat and would not secure their seat belt”, the airline said in a statement.
“Attempts by the accompanying parent and crew to address this were unsuccessful,” according to the company, which did not provide the age of the child.
“The aircraft could not take off in this unsafe condition, so the crew elected to return to the terminal and have the passengers disembark,” the airline added.
The time required “to bridge the aircraft, deplane the passengers in question, retrieve their baggage, refile flight plans and other paperwork meant that it was too late to depart” because the airport’s runway closes at 12.30am, the statement said.
A spokesperson for the airport confirmed that the flight was cancelled because of the airport’s “scheduled airfield closure”.
It was not clear how many passengers were affected. The plane has 132 seats, according to an airline spokesperson.
“We apologise for the effect this had on other passengers, who were able to depart on a flight the following day,” the company added.
Porter Airlines is the third largest airline in Canada behind Air Canada and WestJet.
The new flight departed from Victoria International Airport at 10.49pm local time on Friday and arrived in Toronto at 6.16am local time Saturday.
Crew response defended
The cancellation of the flight in has reignited a debate about the etiquette and safety procedures relating to children travelling on planes.
Child aviation safety expert Lia Tuso told the BBC that the Porter crew were protecting the safety of the passengers with their decision to stop the flight, as well as the child.
“Unrestrained children can become projectiles,” she said, similar to unrestrained items of luggage, which can fly into passengers in the event of turbulence, especially during takeoff and landing.
One passenger on the Porter Airlines plane, Aryeh Kozuch, told CBC News in Canada that the child had not been unruly but had seemed scared.
“They just kept hiding under their seat. If they got forced into being strapped in, they just kind of slid out underneath.”
Kozuch said online comments calling the child bratty or admonishing the toddler’s parents for not doing more don’t “empathetically capture the situation”, adding that he found the flight crew to be quite helpful.
“This was a child that was in a tube with 150 people … They’re obviously terrified, and their response was to try and hide under the seat in front of them,” he said.
“That’s so different than a kid running around and screaming.”