A six-year-old boy who left on a flight from Philadelphia in the United States to visit his grandmother in south-west Florida for Christmas was put on the wrong plane and ended up more than 250km away in Orlando.
When the grandmother, Maria Ramos, arrived on Thursday at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers to greet her grandson, who was flying for the first time from Philadelphia, she was told he was not on the Spirit Airlines service.
“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”, Ms Ramos told WINK News in Fort Myers.
She then got a call from her grandson from Orlando airport, telling her that he had landed there.
In a statement Spirit Airlines said the boy was under the care and supervision of an airline employee the entire time, even though he was incorrectly put on a flight to Orlando.
Once the mistake was discovered the airline let the family know, the statement added.
“We take the safety and responsibility of transporting all of our guests seriously and are conducting an internal investigation.
“We apologise to the family for this experience,” the statement said.
