In retrospect i'm not surprised this has happened.
Security was the best chance of picking this little lad up. I'm not into dishing out blame and I'm not saying there aren't mitigating circumstances but they had the most time with the child and therefore a better chance of realising he wasn't with anyone.
I have sympathy with the gate agents. Checking boarding cards and passports and making sure they match with children running around makes such an error so easy I imagine.
Once onboard the same applies. Children sometimes run onboard in front of their parents and before you know it they're down the cabin and you have to just carry on and keep checkin boarding cards. Families tend to pass you all the boarding cards, sometimes there are other people boarding in between two groups of the same family and it can be hard to keep track.
Ultimately, a head count would likely have highlighted the problem here. Even then an incorrect headcount could lead to the figure given to the dispatcher but given all that had happened up to the point of getting onboard, that would have been really bad luck.
Lots of other airlines, BA included (certainly when I was at GB) a headcount isn't completed.
I'm not dismissing the incident but in response to some of the comments about the safety of Jet2, I honestly think that this could have happened at any airline in MAN that day. A headcount would have eventually highlighted the problem but all that happened before could have led to the boy boarding EZY, BA etc etc.
Last edited by easyflyer83; 26th Jul 2012 at 01:20.