Stepfather: Delta lost track of son traveling from Yuma

[Lance Uppercut]

Unaccompanied minor got 'frantic' during layover, but employee stepped in to help, parents say

Two Yuma parents are upset that a local airline lost track of their 14-year-old son who was traveling alone on Saturday.

"I have never been so angry," said stepfather Robert Smith. "If I had known I couldn't count on the airline I would have flown with him."

Robert and his wife, Jody Smith, said their son was flying on Skywest Flight 4123 that morning as part of the airline's unaccompanied minor program on his way to spend the summer with his father in Billings, Mont.

"When we bought his ticket, we were told by the airline that we would have to pay an additional $100 for their unaccompanied minor charge due to his age," Robert Smith said. "He was supposed to be met and escorted from flight to flight."

The Smiths said despite wearing a badge that identified him to the airline as a unaccompanied minor, their son was not safely escorted off the flight when it landed in Salt Lake City, Utah, later that same morning.

"I got a frantic call from him saying he was in the Salt Lake City airport and didn't know where to go," Robert Smith said. "There are so many what-ifs that could have happened. What if he had been younger and didn't have a cell phone to call me?"

Under Delta Airline's unaccompanied minor policy, a flight attendant or customer service representative must escort the child onto and off the plane and to their next flight, Smith said. Delta Airline is the parent company of Skywest Airline.

"My children are very important to me and when I put my son on that plane, I put my faith in the belief that I was putting him into the hands of people who were supposedly trained specifically to escort unaccompanied minors across the country," Jody Smith said. "I am just grateful that this situation did not end in an Amber Alert."

Robert Smith said he told his stepson to find a lady in a uniform and hand her the cell phone so he could talk to them. As it turned out, his son found someone who actually worked for the airline he was flying.

"She was wonderful. She was a shining star," Robert Smith said. "She calmed (their son) down, got him something to eat, and took him to the gate where his next flight was to be and waited with him."

While the Smiths are angry the airline failed to keep track of their son, they are thankful for the employee who made sure their son was on his connecting flight, and that he safely made it to his destination without any further incidents.

The Sun attempted to contact Delta's Corporate Office for comment on this article. A spokesman named Kent Landers returned the call and left a message, but The Sun was unable to recontact him.

Calls were also placed to Skywest Airline at Yuma International Airport, but that call was not returned.

To make matters worse, Robert Smith said when he went to Yuma International Airport to speak with Skywest management, no one would talk with him about the incident.

"The airline employee I spoke with called his supervisor, who told him that he didn't want to speak with me because it was his day off," Robert Smith said. "I was standing right there and heard him say it."

Robert Smith said he also called Delta's corporate office in Tampa, Fla., and was told by the person he spoke to that it was probably his stepson's fault because he left the plane before someone got there to meet him.

Later that day, the employee from Skywest in Yuma called and was very apologetic about the incident and refunded the unaccompanied minor charge, Robert Smith said.

http://www.yumasun.com/news/lost_42227___article.html/yuma_track.html

 

[Soverytired]

Hmm . . . .

Wonder if this will be the excuse Delta will use to start dumping Skywest lift next?

 

[flyboyike]

Question: shouldn't a 14yo be more or less able to take care of himself and read the signs, monitors etc? Aw, what am I talking about, even 40yos can't seem to manage that!

 

[jetracer5]

When I have a 14 year old son I will hang the phone up on him if he cant figure out how to get around an airport! If he has to put some airline person on the phone because he is to dumb to figure it out on his own I will put him up for adoption! Maybe I am being a little harsh.....

 

[go!ng for broke]

When I have a 14 year old son I will hang the phone up on him if he cant figure out how to get around an airport! If he has to put some airline person on the phone because he is to dumb to figure it out on his own I will put him up for adoption! Maybe I am being a little harsh.....

The sound of your music will change after you do have a 14 year old boy lost in a airport. LOL

 

[EMB170Pilot]

Lost Son: Can you page my grandfather and grandmother please. Their names are Phil Mycrakin and Anita Weiner. Thank you

 

[Fernando]

what if it was a 14 yr old girl instead? im sure many would have love to escort her!

 

[tyuwerty]

When I have a 14 year old son I will hang the phone up on him if he cant figure out how to get around an airport! If he has to put some airline person on the phone because he is to dumb to figure it out on his own I will put him up for adoption! Maybe I am being a little harsh.....

AGREED. I have a 4 1/2 year that can lead me around the smaller basic airports (ones he has never been to) by looking at the numbers.

There is something nifty about the ability to count and recognize letters on signage.

 

[XPOO]

Gee, I hope she helped him tie his shoes and clean the snot off from under his nose, too.

 

[WalterSobchak]

If I were a 14 year old UM in SLC...I'd go scoping out the SkyWest F/A's, too.