Overview

• The parents discovered the boy’s Spanish passport had expired and required a visa, so they arranged for a relative to pick him up rather than miss their flight.
• An air operations coordinator shared the episode on TikTok after staff found the unaccompanied child in the public terminal.
• Airport workers halted the outbound plane, offloaded the couple and their younger child, and conducted a luggage search before police boarded.
• Spanish airport police escorted the parents and younger sibling to an on-site station for questioning while keeping the 10-year-old under supervision.
• The boy was reunited with a relative on August 2 and no formal charges against the parents have been announced.