The cancellation of a flight in Canada after a child refused to wear a seat belt has reignited a debate about the etiquette and safety procedures relating to children travelling on planes.
The Porter Airlines flight, which was preparing to depart from Victoria to Toronto on 6 August had to return to the terminal as a “young child was standing in their seat and would not secure their seat belt”, the airline said.
The delay meant the flight could not depart before the runway closed after midnight so passengers had to be rebooked on a flight the following day.
The incident has split opinion about how children should be treated in such situations and how airlines should respond.
Regarding the child’s behaviour, Porter Airlines said “attempts by the accompanying parent and crew to address this were unsuccessful”.
“The aircraft could not takeoff in this unsafe condition, so the crew elected to return to the terminal and have the two passengers disembark,” it added.
Child aviation safety expert Lia Tuso told the BBC the Porter crew were protecting the safety of the passengers on the flight, as well as the child, with their decision to stop the flight.
“Unrestrained children can become projectiles,” Tuso said, similar to unrestrained items of luggage, which can fly into passengers in the event of turbulence, especially during takeoff and landing.
The incident has led to a debate online over how tolerant airlines should be to travelling families, and how strictly parents should enforce airline rules.
Some have said it was an example of what happens when parents are too “gentle” on their children. The Fox News morning programme debated it, with co-host Charles Hurt saying he supported physical discipline.
“We’ve all been those parents,” he said. “But this is beyond the pale.”
Other people have pointed out that sometimes children are afraid of flying and are not trying to be disruptive.
One passenger on the Porter Airlines plane, Aryeh Kozuch, told CBC News 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.”
Many have questioned why the whole flight had to be disrupted for one child and said the family should have been removed.
This is what happened in 2018, when a father and daughter were filmed being ejected from a Southwest Airlines flight from Chicago to Atlanta.
According to a passenger that filmed the incident, the child had settled down from a tantrum, and had been quietly seated in her seat for more than five minutes before the airline’s crew informed the father they would be removed from the flight.
The airline involved, Southwest, said initial reports indicated “a conversation escalated onboard between the crew and a customer travelling with a small child”.
After a similar incident in 2012, the family who were kicked off appeared on NBC’s Today Show to accuse the airline of showing a lack of humanity.
JetBlue, the airline involved, said it “had customers that did not comply with crew member instructions for a prolonged time period”.
It added: “The captain elected to remove the customers involved for the safety of all customers and crew members on board.”
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