Toddler refuses to buckle up on plane — flight cancelled for all passengers

Last week at Victoria International Airport in British Columbia, Canada, a flight to Toronto was cancelled after a toddler flatly refused to fasten their seatbelt. The airline reported the incident, though the child's exact age wasn't specified — according to Fox News, the child was somewhere between one and three years old.

The flight had been scheduled to depart at 6:30 p.m., and the plane was already taxiing toward the runway when flight attendants noticed the child wasn't buckled in. Neither the accompanying parent nor the cabin crew could persuade the toddler to put on the seatbelt.

Back to the terminal, then a night stuck at the airport

The captain deemed the situation a safety risk and decided to return to the terminal. There, the parent and child were taken off the plane, and their luggage was retrieved from the cargo hold.

But sorting out all the paperwork took several hours. Since Victoria Airport enforces a nighttime flight ban, with the runway closing at 12:30 a.m., every other passenger had to disembark as well. The flight didn't actually depart until the following afternoon.

"We apologise for how this affected the rest of our passengers," said airline spokesperson Brad Cicero.

"The child was simply terrified"

Passenger Arye Kouzokh told CBC News that "huge frustration" filled the cabin, but he insisted the child himself "wasn't being naughty or unmanageable — he was just very scared." "He kept hiding under the seat, and even when they managed to get him buckled in for a moment, he'd slip right back out," the eyewitness added.

"It felt like it went on forever. The boy was finally taken off the plane at 11:30 p.m.," passenger Hillary Herzberg recalled. She also criticised the airline's poor communication, noting that passengers were left to find their own accommodation for the night. "I was lucky — I had somewhere to stay," she said, adding that she still intends to seek compensation. According to CBC News, the airline did not respond to questions about possible payouts for affected passengers.

Social media points the finger at the parents

The story sparked a heated debate online, with most commenters blaming the parents and their approach to raising the child. "Toddler tantrums in modern society are a result of poor parenting, not a problem with the kids themselves," one user wrote. "Some parents pack books and colouring pages in advance to keep their child occupied on a flight. Others board a plane without any grasp of child development and just take their chances," another added.

Some even proposed a radical fix. "I'd happily pay more for adults-only flights," one commenter suggested.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz