Spirit Airlines mistakenly took a 6-year-old boy traveling for the first time to the wrong airport hundreds of miles from his initial destination during the peak holiday travel season.
Maria Ramos said her grandson Casper was due to arrive at Southwest Florida Airport in Fort Myers from Philadelphia on Thursday when he flew alone, according to WINK News.
Ramos, however, was horrified when he was told that Casper never got on the plane to Fort Myers, only the boy’s purse made it.
“They told me, ‘No, he’s not on this flight. He missed his flight. I told him: ‘No, he couldn’t miss his flight because I have the check-in label,’ Ramos told the outlet.
“I ran inside the plane to the stewardess and asked her: ‘Where is my grandson? Did they deliver it to you in Philadelphia? She said, ‘No, he didn’t have children with me.’”
Casper was sent to Orlando International Airport, located more than 200 miles north of the Fort Myers Airport, where the two family members would be reunited, the grandmother recalled.
Grandma was horrified when she was told that Casper (not pictured) never got on the plane to Fort Myers. Shutterstock
Ramos was sent on a four-hour trip to pick up the six-year-old girl, and shared that the big mishap was one of the scariest experiences of her life.
Spirit Airlines has offered to reimburse him for the trip.
Ramos, however, prefers an explanation for the travel mishap.
“I want them to call me,” Ramos told the outlet. “Let me know how my grandson ended up in Orlando. How did that happen? Did they take him off the plane?
The boy was supposed to be flown to the Fort Myers airport, but ended up hundreds of miles away in Orlando. Shutterstock
“The flight attendant after mom handed her the paperwork. She let him go alone and he jumped on the wrong plane alone?
In a statement given to the outlet, Spirit Airlines acknowledged its careless mistake.
“On December 21, an unaccompanied child traveling from Philadelphia (PHL) to Fort Myers (RSW) was incorrectly boarded on a flight to Orlando (MCO),” airline spokesperson Michael Lopardi wrote.
“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 contact 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.”
Spirit Airlines allows unaccompanied minors, whose ages must be between 5 and 14 years old, to travel domestically throughout the US on non-stop flights.
The significant oversight by the low-cost airline came on the day holiday travel was said to have peaked, according to the FAA.
On December 21, 2023, nearly 50,000 flights took off around the US, packed with people traveling during the holiday season.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn