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Teen flying alone on Frontier Airlines ends up in Puerto Rico instead of Cleveland

By Pilar Arias
Published  December 31, 2023 8:11am PST
Travel News
FOX Business

Young child flying alone put on wrong flight

An airline mix-up caused a little boy to end up at the wrong airport, four hours away from his grandmother. Spirit Airlines issued a statement, apologizing to the family for putting the unaccompanied minor on the incorrect flight.

A teen traveling alone on Frontier Airlines over the holidays ended up on the wrong flight, ending up in San Juan, Puerto Rico when he was trying to get to Cleveland.

Logan Lose, 16, was headed from Tampa International Airport more than 1,000 miles away to Cleveland, Ohio, to visit his mom for the holidays on Dec. 22, WFLA reported. Instead, the boy landed more than 1,200 southeast in San Juan, leaving his parents wanting someone to be held accountable.

"They would’ve known it was the wrong flight if they scanned the boarding pass," father Ryan Lose told the TV station. The Frontier Airlines agent at the gate Logan reportedly checked his baggage, looked at his mobile boarding pass and told him he could get on the plane. 

"Help me please," Logan texted his family once he landed. "I’m so scared. They told me it was Ohio."

6-YEAR-OLD FLYING ALONE ENDS UP ON WRONG SPIRIT AIRLINES FLIGHT

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A Frontier Airlines airplane (Photo by Marco Bello/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

"My first reaction was panic," his father said. "He’s panicking, he’s scared, and I can’t be there to keep him safe."

The teen was reportedly two hours ahead of schedule, and was at the right gate that his flight was supposed to leave from after the one departing to Puerto Rico. 

"He was able to board as a result of an error on the part of the boarding agent," a Frontier Airlines spokeswoman told WFLA. "He was immediately flown back to Tampa on the same aircraft and accommodated on a flight to Cleveland the following day."

The airline told NBC News they extended its sincere apologies to the family for the error. 

SPIRIT AIRLINES FIRES EMPLOYEE FOUND RESPONSIBLE FOR PUTTING BOY, 6, ON WRONG PLANE TO VISIT GRANDMA

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Downtown Cleveland, Ohio, the intended destination of 16-year-old Florida teen Logan Lose on Dec. 22, 2023. Photographer: Dustin Franz/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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San Juan, Puerto Rico, the destination more than 2,000 miles away from the teen's intended destination. (Photo By DEA / S. AMANTINI/De Agostini via Getty Images)

"They kept brushing it off, saying no that’s not possible. That can’t happen," Ryan said. "And when they did finally realize their mistake and said it looks like Logan did get on the other plane, they just said, oh sorry and that was it."

The father added that Frontier offered him a $200 travel voucher following the mishap, but he prefers accountability. 

Frontier Airlines does not have an unaccompanied minor program that escorts young travelers like many other airlines do. Instead, passengers under the age of 15 cannot travel alone. 

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Signage at the Frontier Airlines check-in counter at Denver International Airport in Denver, Colorado, U.S., on Monday, Feb. 7, 2022. The airline does not let travelers under 15 fly alone. ( Michael Ciaglo/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

A similar incident took place recently with a much younger traveler. On Dec. 21, an unaccompanied 6-year-old flying Spirit Airlines from Philadelphia to Fort Myers, Florida, was incorrectly put on a flight to Orlando. 

On Friday, Spirit told FOX 35 Orlando, "This agent is no longer working with Spirit, and any individual whose actions resulted in the incorrect boarding will be held accountable for failing to follow our procedures.

LINK: Get updates and more on this story at foxbusiness.com.