Couple Accused of Ditching Kid at Airport to Make Their Flight

Barcelona has been hit in recent months with moves against mass tourism, and the latest incident in the Spanish city's main airport is sure not to endear visitors to the locals. According to the country's Guardia Civil national police, the incident took place a few days ago at Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport, when a couple allegedly ditched their 10-year-old son there after discovering his travel paperwork wasn't in order to get them all back home after their vacation, reports USA Today. The pair instead are accused of boarding the plane with a younger child and leaving their other child behind.

The incident went viral after an airport worker who identified herself as Lilian put up a TikTok explaining the "surreal" situation, per People. The employee says that the 10-year-old reportedly had an expired passport from his home country and was trying to fly home with a Spanish passport instead—but that he lacked the proper visa to do so. That's when his parents apparently decided to call a family member to come fetch the boy at the airport while they continued on with their journey.

Guardia Civil managed to halt the flight, get onto the plane, and escort the parents off of it and to a local police station. The boy was said to have been delivered back to the couple, who police say were reported for child abandonment. "For them, they saw it [as] very normal, obviously," Lilian said in her video, with Fodors noting her story hasn't been independently verified. "I didn't see it [as] normal, and the police didn't see it [as] normal, either."