A language school owner got one of her teen pupils to pretend he had a cast on his foot so he could get on a flight to Spain.
Liz Einstein said the 15-year-old lad was taken off an Iberia Airlines flight on Wednesday as it was fully booked.
She was told the teenager, who was returning to his home country for a football tournament, would be given an alternative flight to Madrid on Thursday morning via London if he returned at 5am.
Ms Einstein said the airline offered to put him up at a hotel in Blanchardstown, West Dublin, on his own, which she said was not acceptable.
Speaking to Joe Duffy on Liveline on Thursday, she added he would not be able to get through Heathrow on his own to get the connecting flight.
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The airline’s policy is that if you are over 14 you are classed as an adult, but she reminded them they were operating in Ireland and he would be classed as a minor here.
In order to guarantee her student would make it back to Madrid safely on the alternative flight, she lent him a space boot and booked him on to another flight as an assisted passenger in a wheelchair so he would be guaranteed to be accompanied through Heathrow to the departure gate.
Ms Einstein said: “It was absolutely appalling. Iberia checked him in, took his baggage, gave him the boarding pass. He was about to get on the plane but was taken aside and told there were no seats.
“He was very upset and they told us they were putting him into a hotel for the night on his own.
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“We objected, we said he was a minor and they had a responsibility. They told us that as far as they were concerned, he was an adult.
“I pointed out to them they were operating in Ireland and this was against the law here.”
She said they put him on an alternative flight on Thursday morning.
Ms Einstein added: “He had to be in the airport at 5am to take an early flight to Heathrow and then get a connecting flight. I objected to this as he is only 15 and his English is not perfect and Heathrow is very busy.
“We made a cunning plan to organise a wheelchair and pretend he needed assistance boarding.
“I broke my foot a few years ago, I had the cast, we put it on him and
he went on the plane to Heathrow in a wheelchair. That was the only way I could get an adult to assist him all the way through.
“My argument is that if you do this, which I don’t think is best practice, you cannot leave a child behind.
“He had a big football thing in Spain tomorrow, he had to be there.”
