Porter Airlines cancelled a flight from Victoria to Toronto on 6 August after a child declined to fasten their seatbelt while the aircraft was moving toward the runway. The child stood up from their seat during the taxiing process, prompting crew members and the accompanying parent to attempt securing them multiple times without success.
Airline spokesperson Brad Cicero explained to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that the crew determined the aircraft could not safely take off under those circumstances and elected to return to the terminal. All passengers were required to disembark because removing only the child and parent, along with processing the necessary paperwork, would have exceeded the airport’s 12:30am closing time. The airline issued an apology for the disruption and stated that affected passengers were rebooked on a flight the following day.
Passenger Aryeh Kozuch characterized the situation differently than what appeared in online commentary, noting the child was not behaving disruptively but rather hiding under seats due to apparent anxiety about the flight environment. He described the child’s response as a fear-based reaction rather than intentional misbehavior, contrasting it with typical scenarios of unruly child passengers.
Another passenger, Hillary Hertzberg, criticized the timeline of events, indicating that the process extended nearly an hour before the child eventually left the aircraft at 11:30pm. This observation suggested the situation could have been resolved more promptly to allow the flight to proceed.
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