Spirit Airlines’ mishap with a 6-year-old unaccompanied minor, sending them to Orlando instead of Fort Myers, Florida, during this holiday season is not an isolated incident of a U.S. airline sending minors to the wrong destination.
In the case of the 6-year-old, despite the family from Philadelphia paying extra for the airline’s assistance, the child ended up on the wrong plane. The responsible employee, who overlooked the proper paperwork and boarding pass, has been terminated.
However, in a similar incident with the low-cost carrier Frontier, a 16-year-old traveling from Tampa to Cleveland mistakenly ended up in San Juan on December 22. Departing from the wrong gate, the minor boarded the San Juan flight early, and the gate agent failed to scan his boarding pass.
Logan Lose, was nervous about flying alone for the first time and checked with the gate agent before boarding his flight. [Father] Ryan Lose said the agent checked his son’s baggage and looked at his boarding pass but did not scan it.
When the plane landed in Puerto Rico, Logan frantically texted his family.
Frontier arranged for the teenager’s return to Tampa and then to Cleveland the following day, ensuring he could spend Christmas with his mother.
Of concern is the discrepancy in the plane’s passenger count, which went unnoticed. Gate agents, especially when faced with scanning issues, may not always scan boarding passes and might manually enter passengers into the computer at the gate, introducing the possibility of errors.
