Spirit Airlines sent a six-year-old unaccompanied minor on the wrong flight on Thursday.
The child had departed from Philadelphia and was going to visit his grandmother Maria Ramos in Fort Myers, Florida, but ended up about four hours away in Orlando.
“They told me, ‘No, he’s not on this flight. He missed his flight.’ I said, ‘No, he could not miss his flight because I have the check-in tag,’” Ramos told WINK News. “I ran inside the plane to the flight attendant and I asked her, ‘Where’s my grandson? He was handed over to you at Philadelphia?’ She said, ‘No, I had no kids with me.’”
Eventually, her grandson called her and explained where he was.
Spirit Airlines offered to reimburse Ramos for the long drive, but she wants answers about how it happened.
“I want them to call me. Let me know how my grandson ended up in Orlando. How did that happen? Did they get him off the plane? The flight attendant – after mom handed him with paperwork – did she let him go by himself? He jumped in the wrong plane by himself?” asked Ramos.
In a statement, Michael Lopardi from Spirit Airlines told WINK that the boy was not left unattended at any point during the trip.
“On Dec. 21, an unaccompanied child traveling from Philadelphia (PHL) to Fort Myers (RSW) was incorrectly boarded on a flight to Orlando (MCO). The child was always under the care and supervision of a Spirit Team Member, and as soon as we discovered the error, we took immediate steps to communicate with the family and reconnect them. We take the safety and responsibility of transporting all of our Guests seriously and are conducting an internal investigation. We apologize to the family for this experience.”
Source material can be found at this site.
