Spirit Airlines issued an apology after putting a six-year-old unaccompanied minor on the wrong flight.
The child was set to fly on Thursday from Philadelphia International Airport to Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, Florida, to visit his grandmother, WINK-TV reported.
Instead, the boy was “incorrectly boarded” on a flight to Orlando, Spirit acknowledged in a statement on Saturday.
The statement did not address how the error came to take place - during a busy holiday travel day.
Kevin!!!
They call this the Spirit Quest. If he makes it home alive, he’s considered a man.
Was the flight to New York, and did they put him up at a fancy hotel?
Did he get directions from that fuckin traitor Trump in the hallway?
I am glad I have never made a mistake at work lol. Every time I see a rule or a warning sign I think back to what caused it. Let’s hope the 6yo getting put on a plane without his family fixes something so it doesn’t happen again
There was no family to go with him. Unaccompanied minors can fly under the supervision of airport staff, usually for a fee. Which must already be terrifying enough for the parents even if they didn’t know “losing your kid” was an option.
https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/special-assistance/unaccompanied-minors.jsp
I flew to Europe unaccompanied in the 90s at around age 12. They put a lanyard on you, you’re first on the plane and last off, and a flight attendant takes you between connecting flights on a cart. There’s very little unsupervised time. It’s not like you can get off the plane.
I would imagine there’s even more supervision, more technology as well, than when I did it. Which makes a fuckup like this fairly astounding.
Right? As an adult I couldn’t get on the wrong flight if I tried. It’s baffling that they wouldn’t need to scan a wristband or ticket or whatever for an unaccompanied minor to 1) confirm & document their presence on the plane like everyone else and 2) make sure they are sent to the right fucking place. Also confusing because you’d think that when the first staff member shows up to the wrong gate with the kid and tries to hand them off, the flight crew would be like “wtf are you talking about, we dont have an unaccompanied minor schesuled on this flight?” I get that people make mistakes but this isn’t some shit like accidentally “replying all” to an email distribution list. It’s hard to fathom how something like this could happen if even the most basic and common sense procedures were followed.
That’s the spirit.
Really weirdly I was actually thinking about this the other day.
I had a girlfriend that used to work in an airport and they used to have this really archaic system for keeping track of minors. It was a piece of software written in the 1980s and they had to keep computers from the time around because it was never converted for modern systems.
Occasionally the software would just stop working and it had to be reinstalled from floppy disk. When that happened they lost all the data. The backup was, and I kid you not, to take a photograph of the screen after you’d entered the data, and then email that photograph to someone who would then resubmit the data if the program had to be reinstalled.
Even if this might sound crazy to some, it doesn’t sure me at all. Industries are not upgrading systems just for fun. It’s only done when it is absolutely necessary.
I’ve worked with systems running in windows 95. On laptops so old they didn’t have USB. The only way to transfer new files to it was to use serial link (we didn’t have floppy drives). What did that ancient computer do? Communicate with subsea control systems for oil wells.
The entire airline industry is like that. It’s part of the reason we have such big problems when one airport has flight delays- they aren’t able to easily make adjustments system wide.
There’s a really interesting video on YouTube about it. Link
Never understood American laws, I mean, don’t let go your kids to a party could be child abuse but letting your six-years-old flying alone it’s totally fine… WTF?..
I did it many times with my daughter when she was young.
You have to accompany your child to the gate, where the gate agent puts a lanyard with identification and destination around her neck.
Then, flight attendants personally accompany the child into the plane, seat her, and note what seat she’s in.
I was not allowed to leave the gate until the plane was in the air.
You must designate an adult to pick the child up at the destination at the gate. They must have photo ID that matches the designation before the airline will release the child.
Children can only go on direct flights. They are not allowed on flights that change planes.
I always found the system safe and friendly. Most flights would have several kids flying alone, so the crew would usually seat them all together and would pay them a lot of attention during the flight.
Around age twelve or thirteen, they no longer count as an unaccompanied minor. At that point, they can just fly like any regular passenger. To me, that’s the more sketchy situation. I’d rather see that happen around age sixteen or so.
Usually minors are accompanied by an airline employee to ensure they get to their destination okay. I’m surprised Spirit Airlines didn’t do this
Ok then sounds reasonable, thx for the info 👍👍
When the US Parcel Service was first introduced, a few people mailed their children.
One of my husband’s ancestors was shipped across Texas by train as a child.
Bad enough to put him in the cabin on the wrong flight, but to put him in the cockpit! I know there’s a pilot shortage but geez!
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This would have been avoided if the child’s ticket was scanned, which I can only assume must not have happened. I imagine this type of error isn’t something they want to talk about any more than misdirecting a kid to the wrong destination.
Its the fault of the parents. Anyone who thinks that a 6 year old is capable of handling the airline experience is a moron.
It’s your fault for not understanding how the UM system works, which makes you a massive moron.
No it isn’t. Airlines have systems for this, the kid is supposed to be accompanied by staff.
It makes no difference who accompanies them if its not their parent or gaurdian.
Do you also believe daycare should be banned?
Only parents or guardians are ever allowed to look after kids? Just give it up, you sound ridiculous.
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They’re not human, they’re a bloody airline.
Airlines don’t run themselves dumbass.
There are multiple points of failure at play here.
The wellbeing of a child cannot be left to only one employee, therefore it’s either an institutional failing or more than one person made a “mistake”.
So if it were one person, it’s a person making a mistake, but if it were more than one person, it’s no longer human- it’s an airline!
Got it. People don’t run businesses, persons do.
You’re a fucking genius!
Airlines don’t lose people. People lose people.
All it takes to stop a bad person with an airline, is a good person with an airline.
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Yeah, couldn’t possibly just be that you had a bad take.
I’ve never been to the north or south poles. Or Poland for that matter. What the hell are you talking about Gomer?
A company losing a child is not a mistake.
I work with children, if I accidentally left one somewhere it would not be a ‘mistake’ it would be a massive systemic failure on behalf of myself, everyone else I’m working with, and my company and its training, policies, and procedures as a whole.
The company has the responsibility for the child, they are in charge off ensuring there are multiple stages of checks to make sure the child is safe. This does not get brushed off as one person making a simple little accident.
There is no excuse for this child being sent on the wrong plane, you can swear at me all you want but that won’t change.
People make mistakes, that happens. Certain systems should be designed such that any mistakes people make have no or minimal consequences.
Numerous things failed here. Sending a lone 6 year old on the wrong flight is completely unacceptable for an airline.
