Vancouver: You might have heard passengers forgetting their documents or handbags in a hurry to catch a flight. Ever heard someone leave their child behind?
A family from the Philippines on a trip to Canada did just that. They forgot to take their two-year-old son along while in a hurry to catch a connecting flight to Winnipeg from Vancouver.
Since domestic flights in Canada don't allow heavy handbags on international flights, the family - comprising the parents and grandparents of the boy - were forced by Air Canada staff at Vancouver international airport to re-arrange their bag weight.
Having lost a lot of time in re-packing, the family got late in catching the connecting flight to Winnipeg.
In their confusion, they left the toddler at the airport. As they ran separately to catch the flight, the parents thought the boy was with his grandparents while the grandparents assumed he was with his parents.
The goof-up was not detected even when they boarded the plane as the family members were seated separately.
The boy was found wandering in the departure lounge and then the airport staff searched for his parents.
The authorities brought a Tagalog-speaking airport agent to understand what the boy was saying. Finally, his family was tracked down to Winnipeg.
But by that time, they had landed in Winnipeg. They too realized that the boy was missing only when they came out of the plane.
Air Canada caught hold of the father and flew him back to Vancouver free of cost to pick up his son.
"Air Canada took care of my son. I'm grateful," Winnipeg Free Press quoted a tearful Jun Parreno as saying as he landed with the little boy back in Winnipeg.
"This is my first day in Canada," he said.
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