AIBU to think cancelling the flight over a child was excessive

I won’t claim that this won’t have been an absolute ballache for all concerned but any type of transport is unreliable. We once got stuck for eight hours on the M6: no warnings or anything until you were in the thick of it. It was horrific and I am just grateful we were coming back from a self catering holiday so had plenty of drinks, snacks and entertainment (we had a toddler with us.)

Flights do get delayed and cancelled, it’s a nightmare but it happens all the time.

Some vile posts on this thread
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Have you read the full story/full thread?

They returned to the terminal to do exactly as you suggest - to turf the family off.

Problem was they couldn't get the flight turned around and depart again before a night noise curfew took effect, hence the cancellation

Many softly parented people are "mentally ill " and cannot cope with normal everyday stress. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule but I have seen enough useless millennials and Gen X....

That’s really ridiculous. They should have turfed the family off instead.

Edit - I did not read before commenting. I don’t know why they faffed around so long with the child for it to get to that point? Should have booted the useless parents and demon child off well in advance.

If you know more about this than the rest of us @pizzaandchips2078 perhaps you could explain why this child couldn't be controlled by his parents, and why his parents couldn't manage a 3 year old child?

Nope. If he had carried on this crap while taking off (when the cabin crew could not get to him) he could have been killed.
As it is, he has cost the airline thousands of pounds, caused major disruption to hundreds of people. He has grounded a plane. How many of us can say we have grounded a plane?
And the parents are as much to blame. If not more so.

Honestly I'd say it's almost 100% certain the child was strapped in when the plane left the gate, otherwise it wouldn't have left. Probably the plane readying for take off is what freaked the child out.

I'd like to think mine would never behave like that, I'm certainly firm enough to get them to behave in most situations but a terrified child in a new situation? I wouldn't be so judgemental as to "know" I'd have all the answers.

What about everyone else though?

Missed appointments, missed opportunities, major inconvenience, huge costs to the airline and the passengers?

I often travel for short sharp visits. My time is valuable to me and to my family.

Delightful child indeed..

Have you never heard of the Lockerbie bombing?

I’d be fucking livid. I’d pay more for child free flights tbh.

That's the ideal most airlines anyway but there's sometimes last minute faffing with latecomers and shorthaul crews don't really have lots of time to do is a "are we all sitting comfortably, good, we'll start moving"..or walk the cabin before pushback/taxi.

A 4 year old? I assume you're joking.

I wonder if they ever got to Toronto by plane, or if they had to do the Victoria-Vancouver ferry (around 4 hours by the time you've got from the Victoria to the wharf and from the wharf to Vancouver) followed by a 4 day train journey. Or did they just give up and stay on Vancouver Island forever?

I've often thought that the seatbelts on planes are completely unsuitable for small children. Airlines should have harnesses for young children and aircraft approved car seats for the under 3s. That would solve issues like this entirely as children could be properly restrained on planes.

Had this been my child, they would have been strapped in and then had some chocolate and a screen shoved at them to keep them compliant until the plane was in the air and I could hold them on my lap. I'm not without sympathy for the parents though as I'm assuming the kid was beyond reasoning with at this point. Shit situation for the other passengers, they should probably have got the parents off sooner.

Barca is boat in Latin (or thereabouts). Definitions and etymologies diverging.

So I guess the thing to do is to make sure all passengers are seated and strapped in before leaving the gate?

Addressed earlier: The airline couldn't get family and bags off, do whatever else needed doing (?fuel top up?) and get out to the runway before the night curfew kicked in at 0030 local.

FWIW the flight is still visible on flightradar replay..

Looks like they departed maybe 30 min late off the gate.

When they got going it looks like a slow (by short haul standards) taxi out which makes me wonder if things were kicking off in the cabin right from the get go.

Then maybe 10 minutes stationary at the holding point (just short of where the taxiway joins the runway)...so fair bet that's where things were really kicking off and decisions were being made.

Aircraft then returns to the terminal.

My big fat Oxford etymological dictionary says ‘disembark’ means to leave a ship, aircraft, or train. Of course it would originally have meant leaving a ship, since passenger planes had yet to be invented.

I’ve only ever heard ‘deplane’ when on board American planes, and TBH I’d never heard ‘deboard’ before.

It’s surely not about the seatbelt, but the fact that they are about to fly? Flying is scary for some kids.

They probably missed their slot.

Once again. How did this child make it's way to the airport? In a vehicle I assume with a seat belt. Do we seriously believe that that child had never sat in a harness of some kind before?

If you look at the etymology, that refers to a boat. Deplane would be closest.

#nerd

WTF is ll this ‘deboard’ business? Whatever happened to good old ‘disembark’?