The couple’s plan went awry after the airport staff found the young boy on his own and alerted Spanish police.
The couple’s plan went awry after the airport staff found the young boy on his own and alerted Spanish police.
A couple abandoned their son, aged 10, at Barcelona Airport after his passport had expired so they wouldn’t miss their flight. The couple’s plan went awry after the airport staff found the young boy on his own and alerted Spanish police.
A worker at the terminal at Barcelona’s El Prat international airport has taken to TikTok to share details of the bizarre ordeal, after it unfolded on Wednesday.
The air traffic coordinator, Lilian, claims the child was forbidden from flying as his passport had expired and he also required a visa. His parents then decided, instead of missing the flight, to get a relative to pick their son up so they could continue their onward journey.
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She said: “He told them that his parents were on the plane on their way to their home country, going on vacation.” The flight’s pilot confirmed police had told him there was a minor in the car park, telling passengers to come forward “if someone had left a child in the terminal and no one had answered.”
“His passport in the country was expired, so the child was travelling with a Spanish passport but the Spanish passport needed a visa,” Lilian said.
“As they did not have a visa, they left the child at the terminal and called a relative to come and pick him up,” she went on.
“They saw it as very normal. Obviously I didn’t see it as normal and the police didn’t see it as normal either,” she added.
She continued: “How is it possible for parents to leave their ten-year-old son at the terminal because he cannot travel due to documentation issues?
“They call a relative but the relative may take half an hour, about an hour, about three hours and they take the flight so calmly and leave the child behind!”