The Associated Press reports that the Parreno family, which consisted of mom, dad and two grandparents, as well as a little boy named J.M., were rushing to catch a connecting flight to Winnipeg on Air Canada. They had to pack and repack all their luggage, which meant they had just 10 minutes to board their next flight. Jun Parreno, J.M.'s father, told The Vancouver Sun, "We were running for the gate." He thought his son was with the other three adults, who were running to the gate ahead of him. They thought J.M. was with him. In fact, J.M. was wandering alone between a security checkpoint and the flight gates.
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Airport security spotted the boy. Air Canada representative Angela Mah told the Sun, "We were called by [security] who told us one of the security people had a toddler in tow. He doesn't speak English, so we found a Tagalog-speaking agent who has been looking after him." Because J.M. is under two, he didn't have an assigned seat or a separate boarding pass, so Air Canada's computer system didn't indicate that anyone had missed the flight. Since the family was not seated together, none of them realized even after they were on the plane that J.M. wasn't on the flight--so no alarm was raised by them.
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Air Canada eventually figured out who the parents were and contacted the flight crew, who talked to the parents. It was only then that they realized the baby had been left behind. Air Canada put them in telephone contact with the child. Parreno was then put on another Air Canada flight back to Vancouver to pick up his son, and the two flew together to Winnipeg. Air Canada covered the cost of the two additional flights. A tearful Parreno was grateful to the Air Canada staff for taking such good care of his little boy.
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