A mom blames United Airlines for leaving her 11-year-old son unattended at the airport where he landed.
According to Fox News, Kathy Kirvan paid United Airlines the $300 fee for her son, Owen, to travel as an unaccompanied minor.
He rode on United flight 4261 from Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. to Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey so that he could visit his grandparents.
After his flight, his mom started to worry after he texted her, saying he received no instructions nor was there anyone to accompany him. The airline company was supposed to have someone accompany him until he was picked up by someone named by his mother prior to departure.
Meanwhile, Owen's grandfather was at the airport but was given the wrong gate information. After asking for help from the customer service, he was told just to locate the kid on his own.
Owen was found by his grandfather with the help of text messaging, after about half an hour.
"Something could have happened," said Kirvan. "Someone could have easily come up to him posing as a representative and he would have followed."
Kirvan filed a complaint with the Department of Transportation and United.
"We are reaching out directly to the family to apologize for not fully providing the service they expected. After asking Owen to wait so that she could escort him off the aircraft upon arrival, the flight attendant didn't notice that he had exited with the rest of the customers onboard," a spokeswoman from United Airlines said in a statement to Fox.
United Airlines said that children five through 11, who are flying without an adult, must go with the company's unaccompanied minor program, which is only available on direct flights. They changed their policies on connecting flights because last year, they received accusations of losing a 10-year-old child in the Chicago airport when the child missed her connecting flight.
According to Suzanne Rowan Kelleher, travel expert on About.com, these incidents are rare, but such unaccompanied minor services are not foolproof.
She added that it was also a wise choice for the mother to give Owen a cellphone.
"I always advise that kids are given a cell phone for the trip -- even if they normally don't carry one -- with parents preprogrammed into the contact numbers. This alone can do a lot to empower the child and give a way to communicate if something goes wrong, as it happened with poor Owen," she said.
Independenttraveler.com says that if parents allow their child to fly alone, they should take all necessary precautions to prepare the kids and themselves for the flight.
"Be sure you and your child are prepared for the trip," the website said.
