‘Unruly child stops plane from taking off. This is why people hate flying with kids’

Opinion: As the debate about kids on planes rages on I’ve always been a firm believer that parents are entitled to travel with their children if they choose to.

Since becoming a mum I have done exactly that with my now almost three-year-old, who already has domestic flights around Australia, as well as multiple long-haul international trips to both the US and Europe under her belt.

For the most part, those flights all went relatively smoothly. Did we get the occasional look from other passengers who were probably cursing internally? Yes.

Did we have a few moments where she wasn’t keen to do as she was told and instead decided to roll around the plane floor and make a fuss? Also yes.

But as parents it was our job to do what we needed to in order to make the flight as pleasant as it could be for all involved. That included A LOT of screen time and copious amounts of snacks among other tactics.

So when I heard about a flight literally being cancelled because of an unruly child my first thought was – what the heck were the parents doing?

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Last week, a domestic flight in Canada was preparing to depart for Toronto when it was forced to return to the terminal as a “young child was standing in their seat and would not secure their seat belt”, the airline said.

Apparently, neither the parents nor crew members could get the child – the exact age of which is unclear – strapped in, which caused the airline to abort takeoff.

“The aircraft could not take off in this unsafe condition, so the crew elected to return to the terminal and have the passengers disembark,” a spokesperson said, as reported by the BBC.

The delay then meant the flight could not depart before the runway closed after midnight, so passengers had to be rebooked on a flight the following day.

The incident has understandably emboldened all those who believe children should not be on planes in the first place.

It is exactly the kind of nightmare scenario those people picture the second they see a family onboard. Even though it is incredibly rare for things to go his far.

Anyone who has delt with a toddler tantrum will know they are a force to be reckoned with and sometimes there isn’t really anything you can do. But when it’s a question of safety? Surely something was missed in this scenario.

How old was the child that neither the parents nor the flight attendants, all grown adults, couldn’t wrangle the child into the seat?

It’s a dance many parents have likely done a few times when baby refuses to go into the car seat, for example.

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Again, without knowing the age it’s hard to say for sure whether more pre-flight prep was required. Like explaining how planes work, the rules to keep them safe.

Little ones can’t exactly be reasoned with, but I’ve found talking things through with my daughter seems to help.

According to one passenger on the Porter Airlines plane, the child wasn’t necessarily throwing a tantrum, but had seemed scared.

“They just kept hiding under their seat. If they got forced into [being] strapped in, they just kind of slid out underneath,” they told CBC News.

It can be hard when a child moves past the age of being able to fly as a lap infant because potentially cuddles could have gone a long way in this instance.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to safety, so the airline made the only call it could.

As child aviation safety expert Lia Tuso told the BBC: “Unrestrained children can become projectiles.”

Sadly, the incident will go a long way into making already anxious parents even more nervous about flying, and the family-travel naysayers even more likely to stick with their “no kids on planes” rhetoric.

“I would seriously pay extra to go on adult-only flights,” one person commented on a Reddit thread about a similar incident last month.

Others stuck firm with parents pointing out that tantrums are just a force you can’t control.

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“Even good, experienced parents can’t control a toddler at some point,” one person wrote.

“The toddler meltdown is known far and wide and the phenomenon still baffles scientists to this day.”

Personally, I don’t entirely agree. But maybe I’m just one of the lucky ones.