Parents dump 10-year-old son at airport in Barcelona and board plane after finding his passport had expired

Nothing was going to stop these parents getting away on a holiday. Not even their young son having an out of date passport — so they left him at the airport.

The parents abandoned their 10-year-old on finding out that his Spanish passport had expired on checking in at Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport.

Desperate for a holiday, they boarded their flight anyway, hoping a relative would eventually turn up to pick up their boy.

With his mum and dad preparing to jet off, the boy was comforted by an air-operations coordinator only known as Lilian.

She took to TikTok to blast the parents.

“The kid told police that his parents were on the plane, on their way to their home country for vacation,” she said in Spanish in the video.

“The explanation given to the authorities was that the child was travelling with an expired passport from Spain and needed a travel visa.

“Since he didn’t have a visa, they left the kid in the terminal and called a relative to pick him up.

“I didn’t see it as normal. The police didn’t see it as normal either.”

Lilian went on to say that it was one of the most bizarre experiences she had ever had.

Directing her question to the parents, she said: “Hallucinating?

“I’m an air traffic controller and as a controller, I’ve seen a lot of things but this has been completely surreal.

“I’m amazed to think how parents could possibly leave their 10-year-old son at the terminal because he can’t travel due to documentation issues.”

Lilian continued to berate the parents, wondering how they could be so selfish.

“They call a relative, who might take half an hour, an hour or three hours, and they calmly board the flight and leave the child behind,” she said.

“As a mother, I’d freak out.”

It is believed that the parents were ultimately escorted off the plane before departure

They were taken to a police station for questioning. It is not known if they have been charged.

It is not the first time a child has been abandoned at an airport — deliberately or accidentally.

In May, a two-year-old was swept away in a luggage conveyor belt in New Jersey after wanderiong off from her mum.

And in 2018, a German couple forgot their five-year-old daughter at Berlin’s Stuttgart Airport.

They each claimed that they believed the other had taken charge of the girl.