While it may seem like the beginning of a Christmas sequel to “Home Alone,” an unaccompanied six-year-old boy accidentally ended up on the wrong Spirit airline. (SAVE) – Get a free report flight shortly before Christmas.
In issuing apologies to the parents and the child, the airline explained that the unaccompanied minor who was supposed to fly from Philadelphia International Airport to visit his grandmother in Fort Myers, Florida on December 21 was “improperly boarded” on a flight from Spirit to Orlando. . The central Florida city known for its theme parks is more than 150 miles from Fort Myers, on the other side of the state.
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“On December 21, an unaccompanied child traveling from Philadelphia (PHL) to Fort Myers (RSW) was incorrectly boarded on a flight to Orlando (MCO),” Spirit Airlines said in a statement to media. “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.”
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An extremely terrifying experience for a family draws comparisons to 'Home Alone 2'
While the incident sparked many “Home Alone 2” jokes on social media, the grandmother described the incident as one of the scariest moments of her life.
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“I ran inside the plane to the flight attendant and asked her: 'Where is my grandson? Did they deliver him to you in Philadelphia?'” María Ramos described to local news outlet WINK News. “She said, 'No, she didn't have children with me.'”
Spirit employees later discovered that the 6-year-old boy named Casper was mistakenly taken to Orlando and, after talking it over with his grandmother on the phone, an airline worker sat with him while Ramos drove the four hours to Orlando because he didn't He wanted them to take him. on another flight without being told where the communication broke down. (The airline refunded the money.)
'I want you to call me and tell me how my grandson ended up in Orlando'
“I want you to call me (and) tell me how my grandson ended up in Orlando,” Ramos told the media before embarking on the long trip to pick up Casper. “How did that happen? Did they take him off the plane? Did the flight attendant, after Mom gave him the documents, let him go alone? Did he get on the wrong plane alone?”
Spirit, for its part, said it was “conducting an internal investigation” into how the incident may have occurred.
“We take the safety and responsibility of transporting all of our guests seriously and are conducting an internal investigation,” spokesman Thomas Fletcher said in a statement. “We apologize to the family for this experience.”
A month earlier, American Airlines (AAL) – Get a free report was sued by two boys ages 14 and 12 who flew alone from Missouri to Syracuse in New York and allegedly “spent the night on a couch with the lights on” unaccompanied after a canceled connecting flight while their mother and stepfather were away. calling different airports to find out where they were for hours.
“No one knew where they were,” the lawyer representing the family told the media. “Finally, (the mother) got a nice woman at the airport who looked for the children and found them.”
