A couple supposedly abandoned their 10-year-old son at a Spanish airport to go on holiday after realising his passport had expired, according to a worker at the terminal.
The parents are said to have left their child alone at Barcelona’s El Prat international airport on Wednesday and arranged for a relative to pick him up so they wouldn’t miss their flight.
The alleged incident was brought to light by an air traffic coordinator at the airport, who made a TikTok video outlining her claims and condemning the schoolboy’s parents.
According to the woman, whose video has been watched over 300,000 times on the social platform, the child was forbidden from flying because his passport had expired and also needed a visa.
But the couple’s plan to make their holiday backfired after airport staff found the minor on his own and alerted the police, she claimed.
‘He told them that his parents were on the plane on their way to their home country, going on vacation’, said the air traffic controller, whose claims are yet to be verified.
The couple were then located and taken to the airport’s police station where their son was. It is unclear if they were arrested.
The parents reportedly left their child alone at Barcelona’s El Prat international airport on Wednesday and arranged for a relative to pick him up so they wouldn’t miss their flight
The incident was reported by an air traffic coordinator at the airport, who made a TikTok video condemning the schoolboy’s parents
‘I’m an air traffic controller, and as a controller, I’ve seen a lot of things, but this has been completely surreal’, the TikToker went on to say.
‘I’m amazed to think how parents could possibly leave their ten-year-old son at the terminal because he can’t travel due to documentation issues. They call a relative, who might take half an hour, an hour, or three hours, and they calmly board the flight and leave the child behind’, she added.
‘As a mother, I’m amazed’.
The incident comes after a couple abandoned their baby at the check-in desk in Israel’s Ben-Gurion airport before trying to board a flight to Brussels back in 2023.
The pair had arrived at the airport in Tel Aviv with Belgian passports and tickets for a Ryanair flight to the Belgian capital, but did not have a boarding pass for their child.
When they were told by airport staff that they couldn’t board without purchasing a separate ticket, they simply left the child in its pushchair at the check-in desk and proceeded to head for the security terminal.
Shocking video footage showed the moment gobsmacked airport staff noticed the lone pushchair and pulled back a blanket, exposing the abandoned baby underneath.In the clip, one member of staff peels back a cover that had been draped over the pushchair, which was sat on a conveyor belt at the check-in desk.
Audible gasps of surprise are heard when the staff realise a baby has been left alone in the pushchair with its parents nowhere in sight.
Staff at the security check-in refused to allow the pair through, forcing them to return to collect the infant before calling the police who descended on Terminal 1 and promptly arrested them.
The pair were taken in for questioning.
