Parents traveling from Israel to Europe were stopped by authorities after they left their baby behind at a ticket counter for Ryanair Airlines. The child was unharmed and was eventually returned to his mother and father after the ordeal.
According to the Christian Post, “The parents were traveling from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Brussels, Belgium, arriving at Ben Gurion Airport on Tuesday to check in for their flight. The agent behind the desk contacted airport security, who detained the parents after they ran off to catch their flight, for which they were already late.”
In a cell phone video acquired by the New York Post, a woman can be heard yelling in Hebrew, “She left him here, I swear!”
According to authorities, the couple arrived at the airport and realized that the baby needed a ticket to travel on the lap of a parent was €25 (or $27) per one way ticket. A separate ticket would have to be purchased for the parents to travel with their child on a parent’s lap. But according to reports, the couple rushed to their flight gate without purchasing that ticket, leaving their infant behind at the ticket counter before being pursued by the police.
“All our staffers were in shock. We’ve never encountered anything like this. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing,” a Ryanair manager told Channel 12 News.
“A couple and an infant with Belgian passports arrived for a flight at Terminal 1 without a ticket for the baby. The couple also arrived late for the flight, once the check-in for the flight was closed. The couple left the infant seat with the baby and ran toward the security checks at Terminal 1 in an attempt to reach the boarding gate for the flight,” a spokesperson for the Israeli Airport Authority told CNN.
“The baby was with the parents and there’s no further investigation,” a spokesperson for the Israeli Police told the media.
No further explanation was given by authorities as to why the infant was returned to the parents with no charges filed. The case has reportedly been closed.
