Jun 17, 2009 6:41 pm US/Eastern
Work Hard, Fly Wrong: Continental Loses 2 Girls
8-Year-Old Bound For Charlotte Ends Up In Arkansas; Next Day 10-Year-Old Bound For Cleveland Shipped To N.J.
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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One of the many Continental Airlines planes at Newark Liberty Airport (File).
CBS
The mother of an 8-year-old girl who was put on the wrong plane while traveling unaccompanied blames the mix-up on "total incompetence and a lack of caring" by Continental Airlines.
Wendy Babineaux said Wednesday she's "getting the run-around" from the airline while trying to find out how her daughter, Taylor Williams, flew out of Houston on Saturday and ended up in Fayetteville, Ark. She was supposed to go to Charlotte, N.C., to visit her father.
The next day, 10-year-old Miriam Kamens wound up in Newark, N.J., while flying alone on the same Continental contractor, ExpressJet. She was supposed to travel from Boston to Cleveland to see her grandparents.
The families had paid a $75 unaccompanied minor fee for the service.
"That they did this with my child and turned around the next day and did it with another child shows they do have major problems," said Babineaux, who lives in the Bryan-College Station area 90 miles northwest of Houston.
Continental, based in Houston, said that in both cases two flights were departing simultaneously from a single doorway and miscommunication among staff resulted in the children being placed on the wrong planes.
"We're reviewing the entire situation and are focused on reinforcing our procedures with our employees," said Continental spokeswoman Kelly Cripe. "We fly thousands of unaccompanied minors every year and the procedures work when followed."
Babineaux called it "total incompetence and a lack of caring" by the airline.
In Kamens' case, she was supposed to be getting off a plane in Cleveland, where her grandparents were expecting her arrival.
"She was worried that I hadn't come to pick her up," said Norman Bresky, Kamens' grandfather. "She had no idea she was in the wrong airport."
Her father, Jonathan Kamens, felt he followed all of the airline's rules and procedures when he walked his daughter to the gate area of Boston's Logan Airport. He even spoke to Continental Airlines agents about his daughter's intended destination.
"I wrote down, on the envelope, the flight number and her destination," Kamens said. "They all seemed like they knew what they were doing. I mean, like I said, the paperwork is very specific."
A few hours later, Kamens recieved a scary phone call.
"I really wasn't worried that anything might go wrong untill my father-in-law called and said, 'Where is she?'" Kamens added.
The Continental Airlines staff had put Miriam on the wrong plane, destined for Newark Liberty, shortly after they had spoken with the girl's father. A spokesperson for the airline said neither flight crew noticed the mistake, and issued a statement reading:
"We take very seriously our responsibility to care for unaccompanied minors on our flights. In this case, there were two flights departing simultaneously from a single doorway and miscommunication among staff members resulted in the child being boarded on the wrong aircraft."
Kamens believes the way the airline handled his daughter's situation was nearly inexcusable.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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