FORT MYERS, Fla. — An unaccompanied 6-year-old playing to visit his grandmother was put on the wrong Spirit Airlines flight.
The child was flying from Philadelphia to Fort Myers, Florida, on Dec. 21 but was “incorrectly boarded” onto a flight to Orlando, a spokesperson for the airline confirmed to CBS News and CNN.
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“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 spokesperson said.
The child’s grandmother, Maria Ramos, told WINK-TV, a CBS affiliate in Fort Myers, that this was the child’s first time on a plane.
Ramos said once the plane he was supposed to be on landed and her grandson wasn’t on it, she began to panic.
“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,’” she said.
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Ramos later got a call saying her grandson was around 160 miles away in Orlando, but his luggage made it to Fort Myers, CBS News reported.
The airline apologized and offered to reimburse the family the drive, according to CNN.
Spirit Airlines did not address how the mistake happened, but said they “take the safety and responsibility of transporting all of our guests seriously and are conducting and internal investigation.”
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