TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida teenager was expecting to fly to Cleveland for Christmas. Instead, he wound up in Puerto Rico when he boarded the wrong flight.
Logan Lose, 16, was at Tampa International Airport at about 8 p.m. EST on Dec. 22 and headed for his Frontier Airlines flight to visit his mother for the holidays, WFLA-TV reported.
The boy’s father, Ryan Lose of Parrish, said the boarding agent for Frontier Airlines checked his son’s baggage, looked at his boarding pass and told him to board the jet, according to the television station.
It was the first solo flight for the teenager, who suffers from flight anxiety, Ryan Lose told CNN in a telephone interview on Saturday.
“He went up there and asked the lady if the flight was boarding, and they said, ‘Yes,’ and they also checked his bag to make sure it fit,” Lose told the cable news outlet. “But Logan said they never scanned his ticket. Logan said they just glanced at it and said, ‘Yes, you’re on the right flight,’ and then he boarded.
“If they had scanned his boarding pass, they would’ve known my son was on the wrong plane.”
When the teen arrived in Puerto Rico, he texted his family.
“Help me please,” he said, according to WFLA. “I’m so scared. They told me it was Ohio.”
Jennifer de la Cruz, Frontier’s director of corporate communications, acknowledged the error.
“He was able to board as a result of an error on the part of the boarding agent,” de la Cruz told WFLA. “He was immediately flown back to Tampa on the same aircraft and accommodated on a flight to Cleveland the following day.”
Lose said his son returned to Tampa at around 3:30 a.m. EST on Dec. 23, and left on a flight to Cleveland at 7:45 a.m.
“This whole ordeal has been stressful for everyone,” Lose told CNN.
The incident occurred a few days before a 6-year-old boy who was traveling alone was placed on the wrong Spirit Airlines flight at Philadelphia International Airport. The boy was supposed to fly to Fort Myers, Florida, but instead landed in Orlando; his grandmother drove more than 160 miles to pick up the child.
De la Cruz said Frontier does not have an “unaccompanied minor program” that escorts young travelers, but said the airline allows passengers 15 and older to fly alone, WFLA reported.
She added that Frontier “extended its sincere apologies to the family for the error.”
Lose said Frontier offered a $200 travel voucher to compensate for the inconvenience, but that did not placate him.
“They offered me a voucher to an airline that just lost my son,” Lose told the television station. “I want accountability. These airlines are not being held accountable.”
Sign Up
