Porter Airlines cancels Victoria-Toronto flight after child refuses seat belt

A Porter Airlines flight preparing to depart from Victoria to Toronto on 6 August was cancelled and passengers were rebooked after a young child refused to secure their seat belt. The aircraft returned to the terminal because it could not depart before the runway closed at midnight, forcing the airline to delay the journey until the following day.

Porter Airlines stated that the aircraft had to return to the terminal because a "young child was standing in their seat and would not secure their seat belt". The airline reported that attempts by the accompanying parent and crew to address the situation were unsuccessful. Consequently, the crew elected to return to the terminal and have the two passengers disembark, as the aircraft could not take off in an unsafe condition.

Child aviation safety expert Lia Tuso told the BBC that the crew’s decision protected the safety of all passengers and the child. Tuso noted that unrestrained children can become projectiles during turbulence, similar to unrestrained luggage, which can fly into passengers in the event of turbulence, especially during takeoff and landing.

The incident has split opinion about how children should be treated in such situations and how airlines should respond. 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". After a similar incident in 2012, the family who were kicked off appeared on NBC's Today Show to accuse the airline of showing a lack of humanity. JetBlue, the airline involved, said it "had customers that did not comply with crew member instructions for a prolonged time period". It added: "The captain elected to remove the customers involved for the safety of all customers and crew members on board."