After a breakneck dash to catch a flight it's not unusual for many people to sit in their airline seat and worry that they have left something important behind. 

But for one forgetful couple it wasn't until the flight's captain told them that they realised what they had forgotten to bring: their three-year-old daughter.

The toddler was left behind at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel after her parents accidentally boarded a flight without her.

Staff found the girl alone and in tears in a duty-free shop after her parents caught a flight to Paris with just four of their five children.

Ben Gurion airport, near Tel Aviv, where the three-year-old was found in tears

The girl's forgetful parents were late for their flight and, in their rush, somehow hadn't noticed that they were one child short.

'I saw a little girl in tears. She was looking for her parents,' said the policewoman who found her.

'Luckily she was able to give me her name. I grabbed her and ran to the gates but it was too late, the plane had just taken off,' she said.

Incredibly, the parents did not realise they were missing a child until the captain of the plane informed them after take-off, according to police.

The distraught girl was put on the next flight to Paris, escorted by a stewardess.

'I simply don't know how this happened to them," said the girl's grandmother, who took the family to the airport.

'We're in shock. They're very responsible and organised, top-notch people. Apparently each one relied on the other and this is what happened.'

A police official said that he was astonished at the parents' forgetfulness:

'It is usual that travellers in a rush forget their luggage but not a child. This never happens,' he said.

The incident has echoes of the film Home Alone when a young boy, played by child star Macaulay Culkin, is left behind by his parents when they head off on their Christmas holiday.

The parents will be questioned when they return to Israel and could face negligence charges, according to police.

The incident comes a few days after an 8-year-old boy travelling alone boarded a  flight Brussels instead of Munich, where his grandparents were waiting for him

Macaulay Culkin in the 1990 film Home Alone. His character had to fend for himself after his parent's left him behind when they went on holiday