VANCOUVER, British Columbia - An immigrant family left a 23-month-old boy in the Vancouver airort and learned he was missing only when contacted during the next leg of their trip.

Jun Parreno, the boy's father, told the Vancouver Sun the mix-up occured Monday as he, his wife and two grandparents of the child, J.M. were scrambling between their arrival in Canada and a connecting flight to Winnipeg on Air Canada.

Running late after having to unpack and repack all their luggage, "we had 10 minutes before boarding", said Parreno, who was emigrating with his family from the Phillipines. "We were running for the gate".

He said he thought his son was with the three adults, who were running to the gate ahead of him, and they thought the little boy was with him.

Instead, in a scenario similar to the movie "Home Alone", the toddler wandered alone between a security checkpoint and the flight gate, said Angela Mah, an Air Canada representative

"We were called by (security) who told us one of the security people had a toddler in tow", Mah said. "He doesn't speak English, so we found a Tagalog-speaking agent who was looking after him"

There was no boarding pass for the youngster, because he did not have a separately assigned seat, so there was no indication in the airline's computer system that someone had missed a flight, nor had there been any panicked calls from anyone on a flight missing a child, Mah said.

That's because the family was scattered in different parts of the plane to Winnipeg and still didn't know the child had been left.

Air Canada staff began checking flights that had left, and "we eventually determined who his parents might be -- and the flight crew talked to them", Mah said. "They didn't realize until then that the baby had been left behind".

"We're not aware of this ever happening on an Air Canada flight before"..

The parents were put into telephone contact with the little boy, and Parreno was put on another Air Canada plane to return to Vancouver to get him after the family's flight arrived in Winnipeg with the airline covering the cost of the two additonal flights, she said.

Parreno had tears in his eyes when he returned to Winniipeg holding his son.

"I am relieved everything is ok...but I was shocked," he said. "The staff at Air Canada took good care of him."


MYWAY NEWS

Very lucky family that the personnel reacted so fast ...I can't understand, when there is a group, and one little one, why noone would check to make sure a member of the family had him...Glad it worked out fine...

Lucky, damn lucky. Considering all of the horror stories you hear nowadays. A happy ending is refreshing to hear.

That's for sure..Stories like this don't get to many "happy endings"

amen to that!

Totally. I hate mix-ups like those. They should have been a bit more organized. They being the family, of course.

They're very lucky. Glad that they reunited in the end.

I so agree! I couldn't imagine the panic that would hit me if anything happened like that with my daughter. I would be a basket case. Maybe that is why I always keep my eye on her and yell if she gets out of my site.

I had that panic when I couldn't find my 8yo son for 40 min at his school fair. Their's would have been even MORE petrifying. Mine had just decided to go play with some other kids, instead of go on the rides whilst I was checking out the market part, and I had repeatedly told him that if he was to go elsewhere, he was to come to me first.

It's a horrible feeling, kids get active and tend to forget the rules...My daughter and I were in Sears one day with my then 2 year old granddaughter. She was staying by us, and within a second, we turned around and she was gone. Calling her name, her not answering, so Sears had a lockdown. Found her after about 10 minutes, of literally going nuts, hiding under the racks where the clothes were. Couldn't see her because she was in the middle and clothes were folding over her. Talk about a panic attack. Can't turn your head for a second..

I can easily see how this could happen.

I think the family was organized but the baggage checks, packing and unpacking, and the delay the airline caused, shook up their organization. It's SO easy to assume someone else has the kid when it's a group of adults. Especially when everyone has been separated from each other.

I'm glad the little tyke was ok. And I'm glad they found someone that could speak Tagolog, that's not a common language really. LOL. Bet these parents never let this little dude out of their sight again. LOL.

Oh, Goodness! That would put me in panic mode for sure! And boy, would my munchkin get an earful. I'd be wanting to spank her and hug her to death at the same time.

I actually got lost in downtown L.A. when I was 5. There was a lot of people, so I got separated from my mom & sister. I went to Pic N Save (now Big Lots) since that was the next place we were gonna go. No sooner than I entered the store, my mom and sister entered the store and we hugged each other.

Imagine getting lost in the city at that age. It was really scary.