A family immigrating to Canada from the Philippines, leaves their 23-month-old son behind at Vancouver Airport.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – An immigrant family accidentally left a 23-month boy in the Vancouver airport and learned he was missing only when contacted during the next leg of the trip.
Jun Parreno, the boy’s father, told The Vancouver Sun the mix-up occurred Monday as he, his wife and two grandparents of the child, J.M., were scrambling between their arrival in Canada and a connecting flight to Winnipeg on Air Canada.
Running late after having to unpack and repack all their luggage, “we had 10 minutes before boarding,” said Parreno, who was emigrating with his family from the Philippines. “We were running for the gate.”
He said he thought his son was with the three other adults, who were running to the gate ahead of him, and they thought the little boy was with him.
A very dangerous thing when caring for children- Assume things.
Fortunately there was a happy ending.
Instead, in a scenario similar to the movie “Home Alone,” the toddler was wandering alone between a security checkpoint and the flight gates, said Angela Mah, an Air Canada representative.
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The parents were put into telephone contact with the little boy, and Parreno was put on another Air Canada plane to return to Vancouver to get him after the family’s flight arrived in Winnipeg with the airline covering the cost of the two additional flights, she said.
Parreno had tears in his eyes when he returned to Winnipeg holding his son.
“I am relieved everything is OK … but I was shocked,” he said. “The staff at Air Canada took good care of him.”
Air Canada cared better for your son than you did Mr. Parreno. If this happened in the US, you and your family may find yourselves being deported only days after immigrated here.
