The British youngster managed to board a flight from Menorca to Milan this morning, when he was supposed to be on a flight back home to London Stansted
A distressed British couple discovered their son had managed to sneak onto a flight to the wrong country after becoming separated from him in a busy Spanish airport this morning.
The panicked couple sounded the alarm after losing sight of the teenager at Menorca Airport ahead of their scheduled Tui flight back to London Stansted. Police checked CCTV cameras and discovered the 15-year-old had managed to leave on a flight to Italy.
He had gone through security and boarded the flight to Milan around the same time as his original Stansted-bound plane. It comes after a mum left a 16-month-old baby home alone to die when she went on holiday.
READ MORE: Children ‘chase sheep off cliff’ before turning on shocked passers-byREAD MORE: Man brutally killed woman on first date and left her body parts around town
The extraordinary sequence of events is due to finish with an emotional reunion in Italy later today, when the boy’s mum reaches Milan after jumping on a later plane to meet him. The pair are then due back in the UK.
Spanish police confirmed today they helped locate the youngster after he became separated from his mum and dad.
A well-placed source said: “They were due to catch Tui flight BY5107 back to London Stansted Airport together at 10.25 this morning but became separated. The boy’s parents ended up reporting him missing and that led to police intervention.”
A National Police spokesman in Majorca said: “Officers checked cameras in the departures area and saw the teenager had managed to get onto a flight to Milan.
“The airport had already activated its missing child alert system but it was deactivated after it was confirmed the lad was on his way to Italy.”
It was not immediately clear this afternoon how the youngster managed to board easyJet flight U23762, which left Menorca on time at 9.25am this morning, without a valid ticket.
One airport insider suggested he could have evaded the normal security checks in place after the boarding gate had already closed and staff checking passports and tickets had left their posts.
Easyjet, which is expected to launch an investigation into what went wrong, has not yet commented. Airline staff are said to have realised a passenger without the proper ticket was onboard during the flight.
The British family at the centre of this morning’s drama have not been identified. It is not known whether they were travelling with other children and where and how the teenager became separated from his parents.
The Tui flight ended up departing 45 minutes behind schedule. Easyjet has been approached for comment.