Parents outraged after girl, 14, forced off Porter Airlines flight

The parents of a 14-year-old girl say they’re outraged after their daughter was removed from a Porter Airlines flight last month and left to fend for herself for the next 24 hours — without compensation or supervision from airline staff. 

Camryn Larkan was flying alone for only the second time on Aug. 30, headed home to Victoria, B.C., after visiting a friend and family in Toronto.

She boarded the plane and was sitting in her seat ready for take-off, when a flight attendant told her there was a problem. She needed to grab her bags and get off the aircraft.

“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 said. “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.”

Camryn said she later learned the plane took off without her and some other passengers due a weight imbalance. She was rebooked on a flight to Victoria at the same time the next day, and the airline sent her on her way. Her dad, who had brought her to the airport, rushed back to pick her up.

“I’m just glad that my dad was there because if he wasn’t I would have been alone,” Camryn said.

Camryn’s parents say they’re angry that a minor travelling alone was forced to deplane with little information or support from the airline.

“They put my child in imminent danger,” Catherine Larkan said. “It was completely negligent and it shouldn’t happen to any other minor.”

Porter says staff weren’t aware girl was minor

A spokesperson for Porter Airlines told CBC News the 14-year-old was removed from the plane due to a “weight and balance issue,” but that its staff weren’t aware that she was under the age of 18.

“Our team asked for volunteers to travel the following day to Victoria. When none came forward, passengers were selected based on their fare type. It was not known to our team at the time that Camryn was a minor,” Robyn van Teunenbroek said in an email statement.

The statement added that Porter offers an unaccompanied minor service that provides dedicated supervision by its staff and exemption from involuntary deplaning. The service costs $100 per child and is mandatory for those between the ages of 8 and 11 who are travelling without a guardian, but optional for those between 12 and 17, the airline says on its website. Children eight and younger must travel with an adult aged 16 or older.

The Larkans say they were unaware of the service and so they didn’t pay for it.

A Porter customer service agent told the Larkans that passengers over the age of 12 who choose to travel alone without purchasing the unaccompanied minor service — such as Camryn — are considered to be “independent adults” subject to “adult passenger situations such as the weight and balance and offloading situation experience,” according to email correspondence seen by CBC News.

That’s unacceptable in Catherine Larkan’s view. She said she wants Porter to change its policy to cover those 12 and over.

“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 travelling,” she said. “It’s just absolutely ludicrous.”

Airlines need notification, analyst says

Duncan Dee, former chief operating officer at Air Canada, said sometimes airlines must unexpectedly remove passengers or cargo to reduce the “payload,” or weight of the aircraft, depending on the flight plan or other conditions, such as inclement weather. But he said it’s rare for passengers to be “involuntarily deplaned” because airlines often try to entice volunteers by offering compensation.

In cases where not enough people volunteer, though, Dee said airlines will have an “order of precedence” that will help their staff determine who is subject to removal.

Unaccompanied minors are generally protected from removal, Dee said, but if they don’t register with the airline it can lead to a “breakdown” in the process.

“If someone is booking their own flight or their family has booked their own flight and has not volunteered that they are a minor that requires special attention, an airline would basically treat them like any other customer,” Dee said.

In its statement, Porter said its customer relations team is following up with the Larkans and the airline is considering ways to reduce the possibility of something similar happening in the future.

Camryn said she decided to speak out because she doesn’t want the same thing to happen to other young people.

“I’m just glad that I knew how to operate or speak to the people in the airport,” Camryn said. “I just don’t want this happening to anyone else my age and younger.”