AIBU to think cancelling the flight over a child was excessive

My apologies I missed read the news paper article attached in the first post. It was another TUI flight where a similar incident happened which had a 6 hour delay.

But nobody really knows how a child will react to getting on a flight. The noise could be quite disturbing to children who aren't normally bothered by noise.

I do think the airline made the right decision but I also think better seatbelts / harnesses should be available for small children. Even if it is like a safety harness with the seatbelt threaded thought the back of it.

There are very few rights for passengers in Canada.

Lots of delays aren't the fault of the airline, weather, air traffic controller strikes to name two.

Canadian rules so I don't know what the passenger rights were...in the real world especially at smaller airports (and sometimes bigger ones) the reality is that it's going to be tough for any airline to find accommodation for everyone, or even anyone at the drop of the hat, despite even basic duty of care requirements.

I'll accept service recovery doesn't sound at all great for the passengers but it mustn't be forgotten that from what we have heard the airline were not the reason for the cancellation.

Where has the 6 hour delay figure come from?

Press reports state the flight was the Porter (PD) 444, last Thursday night

According to timetables (available on line) that flight is normally scheduled to depart Victoria (i.e.pushback or first taxi) at 2230 local time.

According to sources such as Flightaware the PD444 that evening pushed back at 2303 local...so a 33 minute delay...

It never got airborne and (looking at other sources) returned to the terminal about 45 min later..and was then cancelled (Flightaware again)

So either Porter have been extraordinary unlucky with a couple of flights recently or the 6 hour figure is incorrect.

If you are quick the flight (or what there was of it) is still available for replay of flightradar, and the times will be on Flightaware for a while so you can check it for yourself.

And the airline left people in the airport overnight. It seems like rights as a passager today are very random.

The flight was already 6hours delayed.
So parents didn't book a last night flight.
It was a combination of factors that led to the delay. The child was probably getting wound up for hours by the airport as well.

Yes. But I also understand that a) parents know their children and would definitely know if a late night flight was going to be an issue for their (autistic) child and therefore not book it (parenting issues) or b) know how to manage their child and be able to use those techniques to get them to comply (parenting issues).

It's either or but either way it circles back to a parenting issue.

Yep I saw that had happened but well after I had responded and too late to edit in response to the edit (IYKWIM).

It was edited before you responded.

The parents should be responsible for the costs to the airline, plus to all the passengers severely inconvenienced by the overnight delay.

Surely your experience with you autistic children means you understand they aren't all the same.

Yep. Except I've been on multiple plane journeys with ADHD and autistic children who I've only known a few hours before becoming their carer. And I can tell you zero of them behaved in a way that led to to an entire plane being cancelled.

Well my autistic nephew would not have coped well at all if the plane needed to turn around and go back to the gate. He is well prepared and understands plane journeys. If it suddenly didn’t happen he would have been having a massive meltdown that would take hours to recover from. He would likely be hitting himself and otters repeatedly. He probably wouldn’t sleep much that night and neither would the family. So even if the other child is autistic or has ADHD that wouldn’t stop my nephew and his entire family being badly affected. It’s even possible my nephew would then refuse to get on the plane the next day as he would be panicking it wouldn’t take off again. And NO AMOUNT OF SHOUTING AND CALLING PEOPLE STUPID OR DISGUSTING AND USING MULTIPLE EXCLAMATION MARKS WILL CHANGE MY NEPHEWS REACTION AND SUBSEQUENT CONSEQUENCES TO AN INCIDENT LIKE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!

Has any of you stopped to think that the child may have autism or ADHD, their could be lots of reasons for the boys meltdown, maybe he has never been on a plane before, he may have been scared, if he was to have any of these conditions then he will not know how to deal with certain emotions and change of his normal day 2 day routine, or the fact he may just be so so frightened and look
you all are absolutely disgusting with these comments!!!! You should be ashamed of yourselves!!!!!!!!!! ADHD is not a naughty child, do your research!!!!!!! AND MOST OF YOU LOOK EVEN MORE STUPID BECAUSE YOU CANT SPELL!!!! AND YOUR GRAMMAR IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE!!!!! WOW!!!!!

I think they were. The child was settled and behaving until the plane started moving.

@Lifelover16

Yes I realise the plane had left the gate but seatbelts should have been on by then

Should, yes, agreed....but you'd be amazed how many adults somehow supposedly forget to actually fasten those belts until picked up on it by the Cabin Crew during their walkround checks...

It's almost as if some people, even adults, are resistant to wearing them.

No one's saying the plane wasn't cancelled because of the child's behaviour, but even the people on the plane, who do know the circumstances, are treating the family with some empathy.

No excuse for inconveniencing a plane load of passengers and costing the airline thousands.
Yes I realise the plane had left the gate but seatbelts should have been on by then.

Main gripe I can really find about the comms (and it's a fair gripe) is that it was bad on the night ...TBH midnight cancellation at an outstation comms are never going to be great these days at most airlines..

Porter seem to have gone to ground and reality is they probably can't say much more due the rights to privacy the family have.

OTOH I've sensed a lot of the early efforts on-line and to some extent in the MSM have been attempts or hints at painting the airline as being unreasonable for cancelling the flight (classic case being the title of this thread and the whole AIBU as an example)

Bottom line here is the flight was cancelled as a result of the child's behaviour.

But of course it's inconvenient for some to admit that.

Also - to those who say you know your child...

You do, but you also don't.

The essential nature of all children is continuous change, and continuous intellectual development.

Mine were confident sleepers until they gained intellectual insight and imagination - things could exist in the dark...the all hell broke loose!

And, as others have said, the first indication of illness in a child is often whinny and weepy.

I hope both parents and child are ok, and I hope their travel was not urgent.

I think it's more likely driven by inherent unpleasantness and need to feel superior.

My kids were good kids and I never experienced a situation I couldn't manage, but the arrogance of people absolutely convinced they know what happened and it could never possiblly have happened on their watch.

The idea that the situation could have been easily resolved by two adults holding him down and yet no one did. The mind boggles.

Quite. If it was all down to an epidemic of poor parenting, this would happen all the time, and it doesn't.

Having noticed that too I wonder if this flurry against the parents and the child is driven by the airlines PR...

Rather convenient for them that the whole focus around that flight is not on their comms around delays etc.

Someone who was there and had to reschedule:

Flight attendants Kozuch chatted with told him they hadn’t seen anything like the child’s refusal across their decades of experience, he said.

“Kids refuse this all the time, and eventually, they always comply,” Kozuch said. “At least, that’s what they assumed would happen.”

Kozuch said online comments calling the child bratty or admonishing the toddler’s parents for not doing more don’t “empathetically capture the situation,” and he found the aircraft crew to be quite helpful.