A family from Israel made news over night by leaving their three year old at the airport. Remember the old movie, Home Alone, where the parents are bustling around trying to catch an airplane with all of their children and belongings? Well, this case seems to mimic the movie to a degree.
The family was running behind trying to catch a plane to Paris for a vacation. The parents and their five children were hustling, they made it…well, most of them anyway. Eighteen pieces of luggage and four of the five children boarded with the parents; the fifth child was left behind without the parents realizing it. She had to be full of fear. A little over half of an hour into their flight they were informed by an airline employee that they left their three year old daughter at the Ben Gurion airport in Israel.
I can’t begin to imagine the terror of that. Anytime i leave home for an extended period of time…i torture myself going over the thousands of things that i imagine that have been forgotten! Their daughter was found by a policeman; but, it was too late…the parents and siblings had left on the plane.
The family reunited when an airline employee and the child took another plane to Paris. No doubt that when they return the family members will be questioned about the incident…they could even face charges of neglect or abandonment. As long as it was an accident and not a purposeful child endangerment; hopefully, further trauma will be avoided by not pressing charges. Thank God the child is safe. I would imagine that when they fly home they will have some sort of safety, buddy system procedure in place to prevent another terribly scary incident.
Write where you are 