Where is my child?

[hydrabyss]

https://www.theage.com.au/national/...bourne-airport-storeroom-20190320-p515ni.html

Severe storms on the east coast of Australia has resulted in a Virgin Australia flight from SYD - BNE being diverted to Melbourne which resulted in 3 unaccompanied minors being stranded without a guardian overnight. I'd be interested in others views on this.

The first problem as I see it is that the plane unbelievably ended up in the exact opposite direction to BNE. Surely if weather looked to be an issue the flight should have remained in Sydney.

I read the story as they were heading for Sydney and the flight was diverted to Melbourne.

 

[tdimdad]

Are the airlines agreeing to take charge and responsibility for a child? I'm not sure that they are.

Yes, they are agreeing to take charge and responsibility for the duration of the trip. Domestically from gate to gate, internationally from public areas to public areas. As RooFlyer pointed out, there's a separate request & agreement plus money paid for a commercially packaged special service. And at least most of us would have seen those UM's on planes (at least us using the cattle class at the back), seated at the very back under the watchful eyes of the crew.
I've sent my precious ones from Australia to Europe as UM's. The last time we saw them was in the international terminal at the entry to the security check & customs, where we handed the kids over to a flight attendant. Eventually they were handed back to the grandparents at the other end in the airport public area. While waiting for their connection in HKG, the kids were parked in a small airline office room with nothing much to do than read their books, exhaust the iPad batteries and talk amongst themselves.
The question is to be answered how exactly could I be responsible, and specifically act, while the kids are speeding over Russia towards west while I'm on a different continent altogether?

For the kids in this Melbourne news story, while the "store room" was perhaps not the sweetest spot to camp overnight (apart from the forts built there ), at least it was in a controlled area and away from the general crowd at the airport or in the lounge. I'd consider that perhaps a "least bad" option given the situation. But the communications between the airline and family clearly didn't go to the plan but it sounds like it was a two-way street in this case. VA would have phone numbers for both the sending and receiving parties. The story does not tell how much they tried to contact the family but a few tries over time to both numbers should have resulted in success eventually and we wouldn't be reading of this at all.

 

[drron]

Whilst not trying to minimise the concerns of his mother there is a lot of sensationalism in this “news” reporting. Sure communication could have been a lot better but;

It’s described as a storeroom when it was in fact a disused meeting room in the virgin lounge.

The boxes were used to create a cubby house

There were three boys of similar age sharing the experience and no one has claimed they were left alone at any time.

The child with the heart condition was shown in the news report doing somersaults on his trampoline.

This is where I just don't believe the mother's concern.
Did she ring the grandparents to make sure her son had arrived?Seems not.
Had she rung then the next move would have been to ring VA and find out where her son was surely.
As to why didn't VA ring her-well the grandparents were the nominated guardians so in this day and age the privacy regulations scare everyone off.besides did they have the mothers phone number.

Then there is this-
"The airline says they followed all correct processes in looking after the child and had communicated "regularly" with the child's nominated guardian - understood to be his grandparents - throughout the night.

However, they said "regrettably" a text message from the guardian wasn't responded to by the team."

So did the grandparents let the mother know?

Then this.
""In this instance, our ground crew supervised the child and made him as comfortable as possible in a room in our Melbourne Airport Lounge ahead of his flight the following morning."

So the boys were supervised.

 

[clipped_wings]

I am the world's Worst Mother. I make my kids come on holidays with ME.

 

[Pushka]

This is where I just don't believe the mother's concern.
Did she ring the grandparents to make sure her son had arrived?Seems not.
Had she rung then the next move would have been to ring VA and find out where her son was surely.
As to why didn't VA ring her-well the grandparents were the nominated guardians so in this day and age the privacy regulations scare everyone off.besides did they have the mothers phone number.

Then there is this-
"The airline says they followed all correct processes in looking after the child and had communicated "regularly" with the child's nominated guardian - understood to be his grandparents - throughout the night.

However, they said "regrettably" a text message from the guardian wasn't responded to by the team."

So did the grandparents let the mother know?

Then this.
""In this instance, our ground crew supervised the child and made him as comfortable as possible in a room in our Melbourne Airport Lounge ahead of his flight the following morning."

So the boys were supervised.

Yes, all valid points about checking on the kids arrival. But then I might have panicked if the grandies knew nothing although surely they would have gone to the airport to collect them and if they had they would have been told and if they knew not to go to collect them then they already knew there had been a delay. Something fishy methinks.

 

[Denali]

I am the world's Worst Mother. I make my kids come on holidays with ME.

??? Was complainer mum on holidays?

Children dont have to be shackled to their parents and maybe it was a special long weekend with the Grandparents while mum or dad had to work or maybe mum had to go on a work conference and this was her childcare. Maybe its a child custody issue - families are complex these days. Lots of reasons for kids to be flying UM.

 

[RooFlyer]

Then this.
""In this instance, our ground crew supervised the child and made him as comfortable as possible in a room in our Melbourne Airport Lounge ahead of his flight the following morning."

So the boys were supervised.

A cynic (moi? ) could read that as that they supervised the children THEN made them comfortable in the room at MEL. The big questions for me are: what was the extent of supervision? Was some-one within, say a minute of the room? How often were they checked on through the night? I guess the terminal is staffed 24/7? What toilet facilities were provided? If the kids could access a toilet, could they continue wandering off?

I'm not saying that Virgin was negligent, or that there were better options, or that the parent is giving an unvarnished version of the incident, but if an airline takes formal responsibility for minors, it should extend to proper, professional responsibility for the entire time, and there should be contingencies in place for situations like this. If it costs the parent more, so be it.

 

[Hvr]

Here is an interview with the mother on 3aw.
A mum’s anger after young boy was left alone at airport overnight

At approx 3'10" the mother mentions that the lad turned his iPad on in the morning and she found out where was with a tracking app.

 

[drron]

But VA says in the article that they had communicated regularly with the grandparents but missed a text from them.
Again surely the grandparents would have told the mother.

 

[Blinky]

This comment I saw on Facebook seems a pretty good summary of events to me:

“ How this actually reads :
- airline takes care of unaccompanied minors for flight
- flight unable to land in their intended destination
- Accommodation in city diverted to is full due to international event
- airline ensures children have a fun and secure environment to stay in until morning flight to original destination
- grandparents were nominated on paperwork as guardian of the child and were informed of the changes
- grandparents don't see message to pass onto child's mum
- mum gets needlessly enraged and goes to the media “

I wouldn’t think the airline would be allowed to communicate with anyone other than the nominated guardian, nor should they.

Seems to me like the kids are having a pretty good time making sweet box forts.

This is exactly how I see things. The grandparents should have contacted the mum. Perhaps they even did, but mum still decidedly to act the outraged victim.

 

[clipped_wings]

??? Was complainer mum on holidays?

Children dont have to be shackled to their parents and maybe it was a special long weekend with the Grandparents while mum or dad had to work or maybe mum had to go on a work conference and this was her childcare. Maybe its a child custody issue - families are complex these days. Lots of reasons for kids to be flying UM.

Exactly. That's why I am the world's Worst Mother

 

[stm1sydney]

This comment I saw on Facebook seems a pretty good summary of events to me:

“ How this actually reads :
- airline takes care of unaccompanied minors for flight
- flight unable to land in their intended destination
- Accommodation in city diverted to is full due to international event
- airline ensures children have a fun and secure environment to stay in until morning flight to original destination
- grandparents were nominated on paperwork as guardian of the child and were informed of the changes
- grandparents don't see message to pass onto child's mum
- mum gets needlessly enraged and goes to the media “

I wouldn’t think the airline would be allowed to communicate with anyone other than the nominated guardian, nor should they.

Seems to me like the kids are having a pretty good time making sweet box forts.

Absolutely agree with everything in that list. VA did everything right, and have been unfairly pilloried by an attention seeking mum (whose choice it was to send her child as an UM even though he had had a heart operation only a month earlier).

 

[jb01]

Maybe its a child custody issue - families are complex these days. Lots of reasons for kids to be flying UM.

Which is exactly why an airline should not communicate with anyone other than who is the listed contact under any circumstance - in this case, the grandparents.

 

[The man with no name]

I read the story as they were heading for Sydney and the flight was diverted to Melbourne.

Absolutely correct. Not sure why I read it the other way around last night

 

[The man with no name]

Yes, they are agreeing to take charge and responsibility for the duration of the trip. Domestically from gate to gate, internationally from public areas to public areas. As RooFlyer pointed out, there's a separate request & agreement plus money paid for a commercially packaged special service. And at least most of us would have seen those UM's on planes (at least us using the cattle class at the back), seated at the very back under the watchful eyes of the crew.
I've sent my precious ones from Australia to Europe as UM's. The last time we saw them was in the international terminal at the entry to the security check & customs, where we handed the kids over to a flight attendant. Eventually they were handed back to the grandparents at the other end in the airport public area. While waiting for their connection in HKG, the kids were parked in a small airline office room with nothing much to do than read their books, exhaust the iPad batteries and talk amongst themselves.
The question is to be answered how exactly could I be responsible, and specifically act, while the kids are speeding over Russia towards west while I'm on a different continent altogether?

For the kids in this Melbourne news story, while the "store room" was perhaps not the sweetest spot to camp overnight (apart from the forts built there ), at least it was in a controlled area and away from the general crowd at the airport or in the lounge. I'd consider that perhaps a "least bad" option given the situation. But the communications between the airline and family clearly didn't go to the plan but it sounds like it was a two-way street in this case. VA would have phone numbers for both the sending and receiving parties. The story does not tell how much they tried to contact the family but a few tries over time to both numbers should have resulted in success eventually and we wouldn't be reading of this at all.

It staggers me that anyone would send their child or children unaccompanied from Australia to Europe and I was unaware any airline would allow a lone child to travel ~ 24 hours on a plane plus a connection. Can the airline have done a thorough risk assessment on this? Whilst I'm sure the FAs keep an eye on them they also have a plane load of people to take care of. For and example of the risk - what if the child develops a high fever during the flight? Could be one of many illnesses some of them serious. Would this be noticed by the crew?

As for the kid in Melbourne, with the possible exception of not calling the mother it does appear VA did ok given the circumstances.

 

[tgh]

Sorry to have given you the staggers.. our kids were sent from au to Europe unaccompanied.. easy as….

 

[Pushka]

Sorry to have given you the staggers.. our kids were sent from au to Europe unaccompanied.. easy as….

And when I worked in a particular Agency we had people fly their 12 year old into Addis Ababa.

 

[Happy Dude]

My mate used to fly as a UM BNE to Honiara in the late 70's/early 80's.

I think VA did a pretty good job in this, save for answering one SMS. Perhaps next time the mother can ensure that she can contact her son by giving him a mobile, rather than expecting the airline to implement a costly solution. It was disingenuous of her to not correct Neil Mitchell's constant description of the room as a store room and the classy thing to have done would be to thank VA for supervising the child the whole time.

 

[Pleb Status]

What was the alternative?

News Corp headline - "VA Flight Attendant spends night in hotel room with three young boys...."

 

[get me outta here]

They seemed to be making their cubbies out of some sort of food produce boxes. Perhaps VA put the kids in there if they forgot about them again they wouldn’t starve to death.