The mother of a teenage girl who was booted from her flight in Canada because of a weight imbalance issue is outraged over how the incident jeopardized her daughter’s safety.
According to the CBC, 14-year-old Camryn Larkan boarded a home-bound Porter Airlines flight to Victoria, British Columbia, from Toronto on Aug. 30 after visiting family and friends. Once she was seated on the aircraft, a flight attendant approached her to tell her she had to exit the plane.
“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 told the CBC. “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.”
Porter Airlines removed Camryn from the flight due to a “weight and balance issue.” The airline stated that agents asked for volunteers, but when no one stepped forward, “passengers were selected based on their fare type.”
After Camryn and a few other passengers were asked to deplane, a Porter Airlines agent set Camryn up with a flight to Victoria the next day. Camryn immediately notified her father who came to pick her up from the airport.
Camryn’s mother expressed frustration, saying the airline completely mishandled her daughter’s deplaning.
“They put my child in imminent danger,” Catherine Larkan said. “It was completely negligent and it shouldn’t happen to any other minor.”
The airline’s policy cites that unaccompanied minors are exempt from involuntary deplaning. The company offers a $100 service plan for children traveling alone. The plan is required for children ages 8 to 11 and optional for kids between the ages of 12 and 17.
Camryn’s family was unaware the service existed, so the 14-year-old was treated as an adult by the airline.
“It was not known to our team at the time that Camryn was a minor,” a Porter Airlines spokesperson said. “Camryn quickly left the airport and there was limited opportunity for our team to discuss options with her.”
Children who travel without the unaccompanied minor plan are considered “independent adults” and are subject to “adult passenger situations such as the weight and balance and offloading situation experience.”
“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 traveling,” Camryn’s mother said. “It’s just absolutely ludicrous.”
An airline representative told People that a customer relations team is in touch with Camryn’s family and that Porter Airlines is working on options to minimize the possibility of this kind of incident happening again.
