Parents Enraged After 14-Year-Old Daughter Gets Forced Off Flight, Left to Fend for Herself - 'Imminent Danger'
The parents of a 14-year-old Canadian girl who was kicked off an airline flight while traveling alone are livid over the way she was treated.
“They put my child in imminent danger,” Catherine Larkan said, according to CBC.
“It was completely negligent and it shouldn’t happen to any other minor,” she said.
The incident took place on August 30, when Camryn Larkan was aboard a Porter Airlines flight to Victoria, British Columbia, from Toronto. It was only her second time flying alone.
As she waited for takeoff, a flight attendant said she needed to grab her bags and go.
“I was kind of just like really confused … I thought I was coming back to my seat. I thought that they were just going to take my bags,” Camryn Larkan said.
“As soon as I got off the plane and I saw that the door had closed, that’s when I started to like get really anxious,” she said.
The teen was booked on the same flight the next day, and left her on her own. She contacted her father, who had seen her off and returned to pick her up.
“I’m just glad that my dad was there because if he wasn’t I would have been alone,” Camryn said.
Camryn Larkan, 14, was removed from a Porter Airlines flight last month and left to fend for herself for the next 24 hours — without compensation or supervision from airline staff. https://t.co/id4BxOI2Aw
— CBC News (@CBCNews) September 12, 2024
An airline representative said the teen needed to leave “due to a weight and balance issue. The crew asked for volunteers to be rebooked the next day. When none came forward, passengers were selected based on their fare type,” according to People.
“It was not known to our team at the time that Camryn was a minor. Camryn quickly left the airport and there was limited opportunity for our team to discuss options with her,” the representative said.
The airline told CBC that an optional service for minors that cost $100 protects them from being bumped, but the Larkans said they did not know about the service and did not buy it.
In emails seen by CBC, the airline told the family after the event that travelers over 12 who do not have the airline’s service for unaccompanied minors service are “independent adults” subject to “adult passenger situations such as the weight and balance and offloading situation experience.”
Catherine Larkan said the service, required for those under 12, should be mandatory for all minors.
“They’re providing a service saying we know these people are at-risk and they’re saying if you don’t [pay for] the service, you’re treated as any other adult passenger travelling,” she said. “It’s just absolutely ludicrous.”
Duncan Dee, former chief operating officer at Air Canada, said booting a passenger is rare.
However, Dee noted that an airline would not know a traveler is a minor unless informed by the traveler’s family.
“If someone is booking their own flight or their family has booked their own flight and has not volunteered that they are a minor that requires special attention, an airline would basically treat them like any other customer,” Dee said.
Camryn Larkan said she does not want others to be left stranded.
“I’m just glad that I knew how to operate or speak to the people in the airport,” she said. “I just don’t want this happening to anyone else my age and younger.”
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
