This story is being compared in the media to the Macaulay Culkin hit “Home Alone.” However, this five-year-old girl was left alone at a busy airport instead. The family was returning from a holiday and were in a hurry to get home, leading to the little girl being forgotten.
As it was a large family group, they took two taxis home from the airport and each parent assumed the other had their child with them.
It was only when they all arrived home that they realised their error.
The little girl left alone at Stuttgart Airport
Soon after the family had left the airport, sans their daughter, several people saw the little girl wandering aimlessly around in the airport’s arrival hall, all alone. Stuttgart Airport is reportedly the largest in Germany when it comes to passenger traffic, so there were many people around at the time.
Airport staff made many announcements over the intercom system, but no one came to claim the little girl. Eventually, she was taken by officers in Reutlingen to the local police station, where they soon received a call from a very worried mother.
The mother explained to police that the family had just returned from their holiday and had taken two taxis home. Police said that both the girl’s parents believed the other had their daughter with them on the drive home. The relieved parents collected the little girl and took her home safe and sound. It was not reported just how long the young child was alone in the busy airport.
Similar to the ‘Home Alone’ films
As reported by Perth Now and other media outlets worldwide, there are similarities to Macaulay Culkin’s “Home Alone” films. In the first movie, Culkin's character, Kevin McCallister, is left at home in Chicago, while his family flies off to Paris on holiday. In the sequel "Home Alone 2", Kevin manages to get split up from his family at the airport as they lose sight of who he is with and ends up boarding the wrong flight.
He then found himself all alone in New York.
However, as reported by Travel Pulse, the family in this story was lucky, as an 11-month-old baby died recently after the family’s flight landed in India. The American baby boy was named as Arnav Varma and he had travelled with Qatar Airways with his family on a flight from Doha to Hyderabad. On arrival, the family notified authorities at the airport that he had fallen ill with breathing problems. The baby was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.