A COUPLE abandoned their 10-year-old son at Barcelona Airport after his passport had expired so they wouldn’t miss the flight, a worker at the terminal said.
The couple jetted off from Barcelona‘s El Prat international airport on Wednesday without their child, organising a relative to pick him up just so they wouldn’t miss their flight.
An air traffic coordinator at the airport made a TikTok video about the alleged incident, slamming the young boy’s parents.
She claims the child was forbidden from flying as his passport had expired and he also required a visa.
His parents then decided, instead of missing the flight, to get a relative to pick their son up so they could continue their onward journey.
But the couple’s bizarre plan went awry after the airport staff found the young boy on his own and alerted cops, the air traffic coordinator claimed.
She said in her video that has accumulated over 300,000 views: “He told them that his parents were on the plane on their way to their home country, going on vacation.”
The couple were then found and taken to the airport’s police station where their son had been brought to.
It is unclear whether they were arrested.
The TikToker said: “I’m an air traffic controller, and as a controller, I’ve seen a lot of things, but this has been completely surreal.
“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.”
She added that she was “amazed” being a mother herself.
The claims made by the air traffic coordinator currently remain unconfirmed.
It comes after a mum allegedly abandoned her newborn baby to die in an airport toilet before attempting to board a flight home, a Turkish court heard.
Russian tourist Ekaterina Burnazkina, 29, was accused of giving birth in a disabled toilet at Turkey ‘s Antalya Airport before leaving the minutes-old infant and heading for passport control.
Prosecutors told Turkey ‘s High Criminal Court that the baby was found jammed in freezing water with her feet submerged.
She only survived because a cleaner discovered her 12 minutes later and raised the alarm.
Security footage shows Burnazkina entering the lavatory alone and later rejoining her family.
She and her mother were later stopped at passport control and arrested last October.
