A 16-year-old Frontier Airlines passenger got on the wrong flight and flew to Puerto Rico while his mother was waiting in Cleveland
A 16-year-old passenger of the American company Frontier Airlines, who was boarding a plane at the Tampa, Florida, airport, accidentally ended up in the wrong place. The teenager was supposed to fly to Cleveland, Ohio, unaccompanied by adults.
However, when he landed, he realized that the flight had not gone according to plan. His final destination was Puerto Rico, NBC News reports. The airline has already apologized to the family of the underage passenger.
The incident occurred on December 22, before Christmas. The schoolboy's father sent him on an unaccompanied trip, but due to confusion, the traveller boarded the wrong flight.
Both planes departed from the same gate. The misunderstanding occurred because an airport employee checked the teenager's luggage and looked at his boarding pass, but did not scan it.
Ryan Lose, the 16-year-old's father, told reporters that it was his son's first time flying alone. When the plane landed in Puerto Rico, the teenager immediately wrote to his family that he was not in Cleveland.
"I could feel the fear in those messages. I could feel how scared he was. My heart broke at that moment because there was nothing I could do," Ryan said.
The minor was put on a return flight to Tampa, and from there he flew to Cleveland the next day to spend Christmas with his mother.
The airline said they were sorry for the confusion that occurred. Frontier Airlines allows children 15 and older to travel alone without supervision.