"I thought you had her!"

[BaronChotzinoff]

Parents separated seatingwise on board the plane unknowingly leave child adrift at Ben Gurion airport - BBC News story (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7540112.stm).

Is this the first victim of lowcost airlines' policy of now making families pay for speedy boarding the same as everyone else? If not, it no doubt could be in the future.

[Rhodes13]

No how about forgetful parents! How in the hell can you forget a kid. I mean its not that hard.

Lets blame the airlines shall we.:ugh: What's the bet they showed up late and were given the last available seats. And then loitered in the duty free before making a mad dash to get on the plane, probably being the last to board.

I would suggest a meeting with the local child welfare may be in order.

PS Where does it mention a low cost airline flew them from Israel?

[GANNET FAN]

Hey Rhodes, yes it is..........Home Alone!!!

[Michael SWS]

From Associated Press:

Israeli airport police say a couple and their five children were late for a flight to Paris and were in a mad dash for the gate. They remembered their duty-free shopping and their 18 suitcases, but were one child short after take-off.
Late for a flight and "in a mad dash", but they remembered their duty free? :rolleyes:

But wouldn't the passenger count have been wrong? The security implications - from Israel, of all places - are serious.

[Captain_djaffar]

no man...the system cant be blamed.
Blame those parents who boarded short of one child but full of duty free stuffs.

Ultimately a parent remains the sole responsible party of his children till they board the aircraft...whereby thence responsibility is shared with flying crews.

[radeng]

But surely, if the number of boarding cards didn't tally with the number of pax, the security system DID fail?

[Michael SWS]

I have little sympathy with the parents in this case: the fault is entirely theirs.

But the incident has exposed a weakness in the pre-flight security procedures of this airline. Why was it not noticed that there was a passenger missing? I presume one or more of the checked bags would have belonged to the missing passenger?

[franniefly8]

UHUH!
Being a parent who often flies alone with 3 kids I am pretty organized, not to mention the briefings we always do to the kids before any departure...(briefing time...listen, be prepared and repeat!), but I have some simpathy for those parents... even if I don't think that "IT CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE".
Just... Thanks god it was an AIRPORT, and not a mall, or a park, or a restaurant.... it can be dangerous everywhere for a kid, but may be, and this is the only consolation for those parents - an airport is a safe place...
Anyway I think that is not fault of the airline. not at all.
true is you parent, we parents, are the only responsible for our children.

[christep]

There's no weakness in security - so long as no bags were checked in the missing passenger's name then the plane's good to go. People no-show at the gate all the time. I'd be pretty sure the records showed correctly who was on board when the flight left.

[ZFT]

18 suitcases


Travelling light then!

[Tolsti]

It's OK... if they lost one it was no great hassle.....they had another 4 spares anyway

[11Fan]

Of course, we are presuming that it was an accident. :hmm:

[BaronChotzinoff]

Mistakes like this are surely often based on assumptions - in fact we lost our kid in the woods recently by assuming she'd be trailing behind us like she normally does, running to catch up every now and then, but in fact she'd taken a completely wrong path we'd never have assumed she would take. Of course if the hand seems in trouble - you're going to miss the flight - you make the assumptions you need to enable you to make the contract or the flight, perhaps each parent assumed the other, or the other kids, would be taking care of the missing one.