Parents forget child in airport ... wtf?!?

[NotQuiteCockney]

Here. It's not horrific, but it is quite .

actually oddly enough I could imagine dh forgetting me and boarding the plane and not realising I wasn't on it.

Hmm that doesn't sound too good now, does it?

I am with Oblomov here - tis very strange indeed!

"Each parent thought the girl was with the other"

while the announcements were being made the parents may well have been begging th plane to not take/off or freaking out on a plane already in flight.
It is an unusual mistake to make but not an impossible one. Why so suspicious?

The report says that this family were emigrating to france, yet "An Israeli police spokesman told the BBC that they would be keen to speak to the couple on their return to Israel"

He'll have a long wait, then.

is it because they iz ...?

As someone already said. Surely 1 parent had passport/boarding card for her and she should therefore have been their responsibility??? Parent with missing child's boarding card shouldn't have got on the plane until they had established where she was.

Parents being dopey is of the dog bites man variety of news

Of the man bites dog variety of news is that an Israeli air company allowed plane to take off missing a passenger who had checked in luggage. Now that's seriously worrying.

"Parent with missing child's boarding card shouldn't have got on the plane until they had established where she was." so reall, what you're saying is it's the airport's/airline's fault.

Quattro - why?

Jut because the were an Israeli company?

beanieb. No I think it's the parents fault. If I was holding one of my DS's passpots boarding cards I would in my mind have assumed responsibility for them and I wouldn't have got on the plane without them!!!

Think all she means is that an Israeli airline being a prime target for terrorism is generally VERY careful about security issues, so that's why it seems odd to her they flew without checking for the missing passenger first

I suppose it's like someone already pointed out they worry about someone not flying when it means unaccompanied luggage is on the plane (obvious reasons) but not if someone just doesn't turn up. If you choose not to use your ticket, it doesn't really bother the airline I think

yes it does make me wonder why they didn't notice from the head count there was a passenger missing. the girl was obviously checked in so wouldn't have just decided not to use her ticket!

Rude, Califrau
No seriously. I wasn't affected by the nationality of the parents, or which county they were travelling to and from, when I initially read the article. And I really mean that. They could have been from Devon ( I am) travelling to Russia( as I have done many times). Still ....... TWUNTS.
I know some parents are stressed. Lets be honest and say that not all airport travel is totally relaxing. And with 5 childen, I can appreciate. But, please , come on ......

maybe she was really whinging and they just thought 'oh feck it' and left her behind.

oh the emergency passports where you pay extra so they do it fast because in our case mum was dying of cancer and we had to get the doctor to write and who knows what. Still nothing happened and in the end Dad dealt straight with some big wig in person and THEN they sent it by courier immediately. Too late of course. Still they had the kindness to tell me that at least I could now travel for the funeral. Gee thanks. I decided not to send them a thank-you gift of poisoned chocolates but it was a close thing.

Maybe they're totally over-worked I don't know but they were gobsmackingly rude to me on the phone even under those circumstances and I honestly hadn't been to them. Bunch of idiots. I can well imagine them telling you to leave your ds behind. I suspect that's the dumping ground for people considered too charmless to fill any other post.

It was the fact that they didn't realise until the captain told them that got me. Poor child

I worked in an airport before the high security after 2001. Even then the checks were fairly thorough over who had checked-in, tallying the passenger boarding cards with the passenger count, so I don't see how this could have happened at that end. You also have to communicate with the crew so that is at least three checks going on and as I said this was before 2001. Somebody should have noticed they were one body short.

If they didn't notice someone hadn't boarded, yet the bags were on board...well, it is obvious what the danger is.

I did wonder about the parents until I saw they had been split in two groups each thinking the other had the kid. Still...

We once got on a train and left our 2 yo on the platform

In my defence I got on first with the baby, and DH was supposed to bring up the rear. We got on, sat down and I did a head count.. one missing!

(made DH run and get him)

bet the dad had the extra boarding card

(ducks)