Two parents have found themselves in hot water after they decided to abandon their 10-year-old child in an airport, after an expired passport meant that he couldn't travel.
An air traffic controller at El Prat airport in Barcelona, speaking in a TikTok video that has now garnered over 300,000 views, recounted the surreal scene, per the Daily Mail.
According to her, the family realized the boy couldn’t travel due to an expired passport and a missing visa.
Rather than cancel their trip, the parents allegedly left their son alone in the terminal and asked a relative to collect him later so they wouldn’t miss their flight.
“He told them that his parents were on the plane on their way to their home country, going on vacation,” she said. Airport staff, alarmed by the lone minor, contacted the police.
The parents were later located and escorted to the same airport police station where their child had waited. It remains unclear whether they faced arrest.
“I’m an air traffic controller, and as a controller, I’ve seen a lot of things, but this has been completely surreal,” she added.
“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. As a mother, I’m amazed.”
The incident echoes a similarly shocking airport abandonment in 2023 - this time at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport.
Airport staff say the parents abandoned the infant in a stroller at the Ryanair check‑in desk and attempted to proceed through security without them.
Per The Jerusalem Post, the family showed up late at the check-in counter, only to be told the baby required a ticket. Rather than pay, they allegedly left the child unattended and made their way toward passport control.
“We've never seen anything like this. We couldn't believe what we were seeing,” the Ryanair desk manager told The Jerusalem Post.
Airport officials then contacted the police, who rushed to detain the couple and reunite the infant with authorities. It remains unclear whether the family boarded the flight to Brussels without the child.
I guess the moral of both of these stories is: Don't abandon your kids at an airport?