Airline crew aborts flight after child refuses to buckle up

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - TORONTO — A Porter Airlines flight in Canada has been canceled after a young child refused to wear a seat belt, sparking debate about the etiquette and safety procedures reating to children traveling on planes.

The flight was preparing to travel from Victoria to Toronto on Aug 6 when it returned to the terminal after the child stood in their seat and refused to secure the seat belt, Porter Airlines said.

“Attempts by the accompanying parent and crew to address this were unsuccessful,” the airline said.

“The aircraft could not take off in this unsafe condition, so the crew elected to return to the terminal and have the two passengers disembark.”

The delay meant the flight could not depart before the runway closed after midnight so passengers had to be rebooked on a flight the following day.

The incident has split opinion about how children should be treated in such situations and how airlines should respond.

Child aviation safety expert Lia Tuso said the Porter crew were protecting the safety of the passengers on the flight with their decision to stop the flight, as well as the child.

"Unrestrained children can become projectiles," Tuso said, similar to unrestrained items of luggage, which can fly into passengers in the event of turbulence, especially during takeoff and landing.

The incident has led to a debate online over how tolerant airlines should be to traveling families, and how strictly parents should enforce airline rules.

Some have said it was an example of what happens when parents are too "gentle" on their children. The Fox News morning programme debated it, with co-host Charles Hurt saying he supported physical discipline.

"We've all been those parents," he said. "But this is beyond the pale."

Other people have pointed out that sometimes children are afraid of flying and are not trying to be disruptive.

One passenger on the Porter Airlines plane, Aryeh Kozuch, told CBC News the child had not been unruly but had seemed scared.

"They just kept hiding under their seat. If they got forced into [being] strapped in, they just kind of slid out underneath."

Many have questioned why the whole flight had to be disrupted for one child and said the family should have been removed.

This is what happened in 2018, when a father and daughter were filmed being ejected from a Southwest Airlines flight from Chicago to Atlanta.

According to a passenger that filmed the incident, the child had settled down from a tantrum, and had been quietly seated in her seat for more than five minutes before the airline's crew informed the father they would be removed from the flight.

The airline involved, Southwest, said initial reports indicated "a conversation escalated onboard between the crew and a customer travelling with a small child".