Unruly child who caused a Porter flight to be cancelled is proof passengers need more rights

In modern air travel, there are many good reasons to cancel a flight. Mechanical problems. Extreme weather. A US Airways flight out of North Carolina was once grounded due to a bizarre trifecta even Philip K. Dick couldn’t imagine: 15,000 honeybees, a coyote wandering the runway and black smoke billowing up from under the walkway.

It’s like God was in the air traffic control tower.

But until this week, I had not heard of a flight cancelled due to an unruly child. From the Star: “No seatbelt, no flight: Young child refuses to sit and buckle up, Toronto-bound Porter flight cancelled.”

It seems PD444 from Victoria to Toronto was set to depart on Thursday night when flight attendants spotted a child standing in their seat and treating the seatbelt like it was broccoli.

As a Porter spokesperson told the Star: “Attempts by the accompanying parent and crew to address this were unsuccessful. The aircraft could not take off in this unsafe condition, so the crew elected to return to the terminal and have the passengers disembark.”

So many questions. First, why did all of the passengers need to exit? Why not just boot the kid and parent? Second, how can a guardian and trained crew fail to get a child to follow simple orders? They’re making it sound like they were trying to teach a monkey algebra before the safety video.

In a follow-up story this week, CP provided more context: “The child whose refusal to buckle up prompted the cancellation of a Porter Airlines flight last week was ‘obviously terrified’ and should not be blamed, says a passenger who was on the plane…”

This isn’t about blame — it’s about a breakdown in socialization.

Is it not the responsibility of the parent to ensure a travelling child is fully briefed? In advance of a trip to Disney World, I explained the ins and outs to my young twin daughters and outlined guidelines for how they were expected to behave at the airport, on the plane, on the shuttle bus, at the hotel, in restaurants and in the theme parks.

Any questions? They just wanted to know if they’d meet the real Ariel, Pocahontas and Rapunzel — and I knew we were good to go. They were ready to be released in crowded public spaces. They understood that other families were also going to Disney to have a great time.

It wasn’t just about us. A civilized society means it is never just about us.

This is an important lesson too many parents ignore these days. I once wrote a column encouraging new parents not to take their babies to restaurants.

Babies cry. It’s not their fault. But crying is also not fair to other paying diners.

Many strongly objected to the column. I stand by it. It’s not about just you.

We need a more robust bill of rights for travellers that removes loopholes for carriers to shrug and say, “It wasn’t our fault.” Coincidentally, my wife was in Victoria a couple of weeks ago and I can only imagine her reaction — I’m picturing the Incredible Hulk with blonde hair — if her next flight to Calgary was delayed because a toddler was hostile to aviation safety laws.

Why didn’t a flight attendant just bribe the kid? “Do you like cookies? Candy? Coke? Sit down, buckle up and I’ll bring you treats and an iPad to watch Bluey.”

We have pilots with hundreds of hours of flight time. Radar systems. Satellite tracking. Planes with auto-pilot. And, yet, a flight can now get grounded by a tiny human impervious to reason?

The Porter crew expected the child to blink. The child did not blink. Then every other passenger was left groggy-eyed as they collected their carry-ons from the overhead bin and searched for an airport bench to sleep on before the rescheduled flight the next day. This is nuts.

A revamped bill of rights would mandate free hotel rooms and meal vouchers.

Make the airlines fear a cost and there will be no more misbehaving kids.