Canadian airline cancels flight after child refuses to wear seatbelt

Porter Airlines cancelled a flight from Victoria to Toronto on 6 August after a young passenger would not stay seated with a seatbelt fastened, according to the airline.

As the plane taxied toward the runway, the child was standing in their seat. Despite repeated efforts by the accompanying parent and cabin crew to secure the child, the attempts failed, and the crew judged the aircraft unsafe to depart in that state. They returned to the terminal so the child and parent could leave the plane.

Full plane had to disembark

Airline spokesperson Brad Cicero told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that ultimately every passenger had to get off, since removing only the child and parent and redoing the necessary paperwork would have eaten up too much time before the airport's midnight-thirty closure. He apologised for the disruption caused to other travellers, who were rebooked on a flight the next day.

Fellow passenger Aryeh Kozuch told the Canadian Press that the child had not been behaving disruptively in the way online criticism suggested, but instead appeared frightened, repeatedly trying to hide beneath the seat in front and slipping out from under the belt whenever restrained. He contrasted this with a child running around and screaming, describing it instead as a young child overwhelmed by being confined in a cabin with roughly 150 people.

Another passenger, Hillary Hertzberg, said the airline's response felt slow, noting the child was finally taken off around 11:30pm after passengers had already been aboard for close to an hour. Porter Airlines confirmed that all affected passengers were rebooked onto an alternative flight the following day.