Child Flown to Wrong Location by Spirit Airlines

An unaccompanied child traveling from Philadelphia to Fort Myers was "incorrectly boarded" onto a plane to Orlando, a Spirit Airlines spokesman said Sunday. The two cities in Florida are about 160 miles apart.

Spirit did not provide additional details about the child or how the mistake on Thursday was made, but the airline's spokesperson did say an internal investigation was underway.

"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 spokesperson said.

CBS affiliate WINK-TV identified the child as a 6-year-old boy visiting his grandmother, Maria Ramos. The flight was his first time on a plane, Ramos told WINK-TV.

"They told me, 'No, he's not on this flight. He missed his flight.' I said, 'No, he could not miss his flight because I have the check-in tag,'" Ramos said. "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.'

A spokesperson for Spirit Airlines issued an apology to the family, but Ramos expressed her desire for answers.

"I want them to reach out to me," she informed WINK-TV. "I want to know how my grandson ended up in Orlando. How did this happen? Did they take him off the plane? Did the flight attendant - after my mom handed him over with the necessary documents - let him go by himself? Did he mistakenly board the wrong plane by himself?"

In the past, there have been incidents of unaccompanied minors being placed on incorrect flights. In 2019, a boy was mistakenly put on a United Airlines flight to Germany instead of Sweden. In 2009, two unaccompanied girls - aged 8 and 10 - were placed on the wrong Continental Express flights. The airline attributed the mishap to "miscommunication among staff."

These incidents of misdirected passengers are not limited to children. In 2018, United Airlines mistakenly flew a German shepherd bound for Kansas to Japan. The airline also diverted a flight from Newark to St. Louis in 2018 when the crew realized that they had loaded a dog into the cargo that was actually supposed to be transported to Akron, Ohio.