Delta passenger dismayed after child car seat left behind on Saskatoon-bound flight

A Saskatoon-area grandmother says it's ludicrous that her grandson's car seat was left behind as she returned home from a U.S. trip on a Delta flight full of hunters heading to Saskatchewan.

Linda Rudachyk was flying home last Wednesday after a trip to Tennessee with her daughter and grandson. Their trip home included a four-hour layover in Minneapolis, Minn.

"It was obvious that the plane was full of hunters. You know, in the loading area everybody [was] in their camouflage," Rudachyk said.

When they arrived in Saskatoon, Rudachyk's daughter got a notification that their luggage hadn't made the trip.

They soon discovered they were part of a group of eight Canadians whose luggage had been left in Minneapolis. A group of women on the flight told Rudachyk they had actually seen baggage being removed from the plane.

"And then we said, 'surely not a car seat.' And they said, 'yeah, there was a car seat.'"

Rudachyk and her daughter were hopeful that the car seat somehow made it back on the plane. However, as bags came to the luggage claim area, they discovered it hadn't.

"And so we get back to Saskatoon and we have no car seat to transport our baby with," she said.

According to Saskatchewan Government Insurance, effective June 27, booster seats became mandatory for children under the age of seven, less than 145 centimetres in height and under 80 pounds when riding in a vehicle.

The fine for failing to secure a child in an appropriate booster seat or child car seat is $175, the same amount charged for an adult caught not wearing a seatbelt.

Apology

A spokesperson for Delta Air Lines said it is not the company's policy to pick and choose what gets in and what's left behind in the cargo bins of an airplane.

"Delta is appalled to hear this customer's account of what was seen during the loading process of their recent flight to Saskatoon," said Morgan Durrant in an email.

"We are looking into what may have transpired here but our early sense is that the car seat was inadvertently left off the aircraft. We're reaching out to this customer privately to apologize and offer a gesture of our regret for the experience."

'A brainless act'

After speaking with a number of managers at the Saskatoon airport, Rudachyk and her daughter were provided with a car seat so they were able to take the young boy home.

While Rudachyk agreed she could be without her suitcase, she still questions why the car seat was left behind.

"I don't like what they did to deliberately keep the Canadian stuff back, but suitcases are suitcases … it was the car seat that, to me, was just a brainless act."