The grandmother of a 6-year-old child who was scheduled to fly unaccompanied on a Spirit Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Fort Myers, Florida, was worried sick when he arrived in Orlando instead of Fort Myers to meet his grandmother. Despite the airline issuing an apology, the family questions how the child ended up 160 miles from his intended destination and is considering a lawsuit.
Young Casper was expected to spend the Christmas holiday with his grandmother, who arrived to pick him up at the Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers on Thursday, Dec. 21.
However, he was not there when the flight was scheduled to arrive.
Airline workers claimed that the young boy had missed the flight, but the grandmother was confident he had been placed on a plane since she possessed a check-in tag from the Philadelphia International Airport.
“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,'” Maria Ramos explained according to WINK News.
For 40 minutes, she was unsure as to where the first grader was.
Ramos said her fears only subsided when her grandson FaceTimed her and told her that he was safe, albeit at the Orlando airport four hours away.
“He goes ‘mama, I’m in the airport.’ I said give me an adult, Casper, that is with you. He said, ‘No, grandma, I don’t have anyone with me,'” Ramos explained.
The grandmother said that the boy had a lanyard around his neck that said, “final destination RSW” and had his flight information on it.
When she spoke to her grandchild, she wanted to make sure he did not remove himself from the plane.
“I asked him once they put you in the seat, did you get off the plane,” Ramos said. “He said, ‘No, Grandma, I got on the plane and I went to sleep.'”
Furiously, the grandmother waited for someone to call her, but they did not.
“I tell you; nobody called me. I had to call Casper again to be able to talk to flight attendants,” said Ramos.
A representative explained that Casper had been “incorrectly boarded” onto the wrong plane during his time in Philadelphia.
“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,” the airline said in a statement to CNN.
“We take the safety and responsibility of transporting all of our Guests seriously and are conducting an internal investigation,” the statement continued, adding, “We apologize to the family for this experience.”
The airline has still not explained how the child was placed on the wrong plane, only assuring the family that the child was always with a Spirit team member during the trip.
Ramos said has been in contact with Spirit Airlines’ corporate office and they have offered to reimburse her for the drive to pick up her grandchild.
However, the gas and toll fees are not enough for the grandmother. She wants answers.
“I want them to call me. Let me know how my grandson ended up in Orlando,” Ramos said. “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?”
She further states that she and her family are considering a lawsuit, particularly since no one has an answer for how he got on the wrong flight. Ramos wonders how come no one has an update for her almost a week after the incident.
“Come on, you have cameras all over this place. You have cameras in your plane. You have cameras all over. You’re telling me you don’t know what happened to Casper, five days later, and it’s under investigation?” said Ramos.
“That makes me think that he didn’t have a flight attendant” despite what the company insists, Ramos added.
Spirit has not returned calls to Atlanta Black Star regarding this incident.
