AIBU to think cancelling the flight over a child was excessive

[MrsShawnHatosy]

An airline cancelled a flight because a child refused to sit down and put their seatbelt on. AIBU to think they should have asked the parents to get off, rather than cancelling the flight and stranding the rest of the passengers?

https://www.mirror.co.uk/travel/news/flight-cancelled-passengers-stranded-due-37532204

Quite. And Victoria to Toronto is hours. You'd have to effectively restain him the whole time.

Actually that's not strictly true. But in this case the luggage would have needed to be offloaded.

And if the child started screeching at the top of their lungs? It’s not exactly something you can always fix. Sometimes small dc who are coming down with something can get like this.

not sure if you have taken this whole ‘I’d make it sit down’ to it’s possible conclusions.

pretty sure if you screamed and physically restrained your toddler and gagged it you wouldn’t be looked upon well by the law

You haven’t been around many dc have you. Dc have been restrained to the point of suffocation and they didn’t stop struggling and screaming.

They have yes, two babies have been killed at nurseries in this way

This is a parenting issue

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

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

#nerd

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?

They probably missed their slot.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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?

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

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.

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

Have you never heard of the Lockerbie bombing?

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..

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.

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.