Entire flight is cancelled after rowdy child refuses to take a seat down on aircraft

A plane’s passengers were left stranded overnight after its flight was cancelled when a young child stood on their seat and repeatedly refused to buckle up, delaying take-off

A whole flight was cancelled after a young child refused to sit down and wear a seatbelt. The incident consequently sparked a standoff so long it pushed the plane into an overnight runway curfew.

The Porter Airlines flight from Victoria, B.C, to Toronto, Canada, was due to depart on Thursday night (August 6), but passengers ended up stranded until Friday (August 7) after the aircraft was forced to return to the terminal and later abandon the trip entirely.

In an email to CTV News, a Porter Airlines spokesperson said the plane had already closed its doors, left the terminal at Victoria International Airport and was taxiing towards the runway when crew members spotted the issue. “A young child was standing in their seat and would not secure their seatbelt,” reads the statement from Porter Airlines.

The airline said cabin crew and the child’s parents tried to buckle the youngster in, but couldn’t. The spokesperson explained: “The aircraft could not take off in this unsafe condition, so the crew elected to return to the terminal and have the passengers disembark.”

Flight PD444 was forced to turn around because federal aviation rules prohibit take-off when any passenger is unsecured. The captain taxied back to the gate so the non-compliant family could be removed from the flight.

But the disruption didn’t end there. The airline said the lengthy process of offloading the family set off a chain of delays.

This included locating and unloading their checked bags from the cargo hold, refiling flight plans with air traffic control, and completing incident paperwork. Those administrative and safety steps took so long that the aircraft ran into a strict overnight runway curfew at Victoria International Airport.

By the time the process was complete, it had drifted past 12.30am – the point when the runway shuts down for the night, People reported. With the runway closed and the clock against them, Porter had no choice but to cancel the flight, leaving remaining passengers to spend the night in Victoria before being rebooked on a departure the next day.

In other flight news, Bristol Airport saw absolute chaos after all flights in and out were cancelled yesterday (August 7), with “emergency repairs” required on the runway, the Daily Star previously reported.

One person said: “I decided to take a bus somewhere. Still in queues to get taxis to go to London for £300 and take tomorrow morning flights.

“I’m trying to get to Paris but all the flights are already booked.”

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