A 16-year-old traveling alone from Tampa was mistakenly put on a flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico, according to Frontier Airlines.
Frontier, which offered its apologies to the family for the error, said the boy was supposed to board a flight to Cleveland on Dec. 22. The flights to San Juan and Cleveland departed from the same gate, with the San Juan flight leaving first.
The boy was immediately flown back to Tampa on the same plane and was able to get on a flight to Cleveland the next day, Frontier said.
The teen’s father told NBC News that his son was nervous about flying alone for the first time and checked with the gate agent before boarding his flight. When he landed in Puerto Rico, realizing it wasn’t his intended destination, he frantically texted his father, who told NBC he could sense the fear in his messages.
Frontier allows children aged 15 and above to fly alone, but unlike some airlines, they don’t offer an unaccompanied minor program that involves airline-provided escorts.
In a similar but separate incidentlast week, a 6-year-old flying with Spirit Airlines on Dec. 21 from Philadelphia to Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers was incorrectly boarded on a flight to Orlando, the company told multiple outlets.
The young child was accompanied by a Spirit team member during the whole process, Spirit said. The gate agent, whom Spirit said was responsible for the error, is no longer with the company.
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