I cannot imagine sending a 5-year-old child alone on a plane. You are entrusting your young child to complete strangers! And when it did go wrong. she has an attorney and threats of a lawsuit ready to go.
http://abcn.ws/2bGNUJ4 Mom Panicked After 5-Year-Old Son Was Put on Wrong Flight: Lawyer
Would you let your 5 year-old fly alone? Why do airlines even permit this? At what age would you do this? I am thinking around 10 - and a child who has flown a few times before - the child has to be mature enough to understand the correct flight number, destination, etc.
I thought kids that young were required to have someone from the airline who made sure they got where they needed to be. Was that not a requirement?
And how does one get on the wrong plane these days?? did the kid have the wrong boarding pass?
Plus, parents of young kids ARE allowed to accompany them to their departure gate and wait with them. All the parent has to do is ask. You can do this with seniors traveling as well.
What did this parent do? Just hand their kid over to the airline before they went through TSA? If so, that was unnecessary…and no, I would not do that with a child,that young.
On the news they said the mother had paid Jetblue an additional $100 to accompany the child on and off the flight. It sounds like Jetblue just assumed they had the right child, even though there were 2 young boys at the airport flying solo.
I wouldn’t have let my kids fly alone at age 5, and I’m not sure why the airline would allow it.
The mother apparently flew home to NY first - leaving the child with family in the Dominican Republic. I have not seen any details of how those relatives supervised the handoff of the boy to JetBlue. Some how 2 boys of roughly the same age were mixed up - their passports were switched.
I always love when the first reaction is to threaten a lawsuit. Maybe she should scknowledge that her plan was foolish, even if the airline allowed it.
The children were flying as unaccompanied minors. According to another story the other boy had this boy’s passport. Often UM’s are put in a waiting room together. The kids must have switched passports. It’s still a major screw up.
It does not appear that either family took their respective child to the gate and sat with him until the plane boarded. If they had - this would not have happened.
I was on a flight once…and the adult next to me somehow managed to get on the wrong plane. We were on a non-stop from Boston to West Palm. She was flying to Newark. She freaked out when she heard the pilot describing flying over NYC…I mean really freaked out.
She was quickly moved to first class!
Mistakes happen.
I can’t believe a five year old was left to fend for himself even with airline employees with him. The adult accompanying this child to the airport should have stayed with the child until he boarded his plane. And this IS allowed.
I did not know you could accompany seniors to the gate, I am going to ask about that!
My nephew had to fly alone from SoCal to WA monthly as young as 3, divorce decree, unaccompanied minor. I can see a working Mom taking a week’s vacation and then letting her young kid stay with family for an extended visit. I can see two little kids accidentally switching passports. I can see the mix up happening. I can imagine the family was unaware they could accompany him to the gate, it would have been nice if the check in people had offered that, but it’s not a lawsuit!
I would never in a million years send a 5 year as an unaccompanied minor but I have seen airlines taking care of older kids traveling unaccompanied on flights. I once sat next a girl who was about 12 maybe a bit older and I did watch her being handed off to her aunt when the plane landed in Salt Lake City. My husband’s cousin has sent his granddaughter alone on SW from Florida to Islip to meet his ex, the girl’s granddaughter and in all cases a family member is allowed at the gate for boarding/departure and pick-up.
@somemom we accompanied my dad to the gate and waited with him until he boarded his flight. We had to get a special form to go through TSA. It was not a problem. We thought they would only give us one…but they gave us four…so we could all be with him.
You know…it saved THEM having to provide someone to push the wheelchair around…and make sure he got on the plane! The airline was very accommodating about this.
I never allowed our kids to fly without us (except well-chaperoned group trips) until they went off to college as young adults. I can see how it might be necessary to send a kid to fly without supervision, but 5 is awfully young (and yes, 3 IS even younger).
DD flew unaccompanied to visit relatives when she was about 12. BUT we put her on the plane…non-stop flight. And she was to be met by the relatives on the other end. She was old enough to understand that IF those relatives were not in the gate area, she was to go to the ticket counter by that gate and wait there. She had to do this because they were late getting to the airport.
How is that any different than sending a kid to preschool where the staff are complete strangers? Airports & airplanes are safer & more secure than school yards.
Airline staff get trained for unaccompanied minor service. Mistakes happen. The kid is fine.
Isn’t that the whole point of “unaccompanied minor service”? That the kid doesn’t have to know anything?
5 is fine for some families and not fine for others.
I flew alone from HNL to Louisville with transfer in ORD but I was a pretty mature 14 year old who babysat 5 year olds by that point. 5 is very young in my mind to handle the things that can come up in travel, even if you pay the fee so they can be unaccompanied.
I am troubled by the assumption that parents were negligent here. While I too would never want my child to fly alone, I am lucky that I would not have to: an extra plane ticket is not prohibitively expensive in relation to my family income.
I don’t know the story in this specific situation, but just a thought based on my experience as a school principal in a building with many immigrants from Central America:
Some parents have their students stay with their grandparents when U.S. schools are on summer vacation. The parents are working and need child care for their child, and think it is an opportunity for the child to spend time with their grandparent and in another country. If a parent can’t afford an extra round trip ticket to fly down to pick up their child, the grandparent might put the child on a plane and trust the plane staff to assist with any flight transfers.
How truly terrifying to think that the airline could mess that up!
I bsolutely do NOT think the parents should have needed to get a second ticket and fly with the child. But it would have been a good idea, with a young child, to have the adult who took them to the airport accompany them to the gate and wait until they boarded the plane.
Perhaps,the family didn’t know they could do this.
And yes…the airline made a mistake. But what is hiring a lawyer going to do? What?