*Imagine if you’re mother waiting at the airport to be re-united with your 5-year-old child that was traveling alone from another city. You’re already full of fear and anticipation and then it happens: an airline rep sees you and presents to you a child that isn’t YOURS. Oh yeah, it’s time to freak out!
What we described was not some imaginary scenario. It actually happened to Maribel Martinez. She said she was shocked when JetBlue staffers presented her with an unknown five-year-old on August 17 at John F Kennedy Airport. “
No, this is not my child,” she recalled telling JetBlue employees. “I was freaking out.”
In the wake of what happened, Martinez has filed a lawsuit against JetBlue for unspecified damages, for the “great emotional distress, extreme fear, horror, mental shock, mental anguish and psychological trauma,” according to The Telegraph.
If you’re wondering how in the heck did this happen, the New York mother returned early from a holiday to the Dominican Republic, leaving her five-year old son Andy with family in the Caribbean. She had paid JetBlue $100 for a member of staff to escort Andy on to the plane, but was distraught to find that Andy was nowhere to be found, the report says.
While Martinez was losing her m ind over worry for her child, the airline was scrambling around trying to locate him. Finally, after about 3 hours it was learned that little Andy had been flown to Boston by mistake.
“I thought he was kidnapped,” said Ms Martinez. “I thought I would never see him again.”
“Any parent can understand the terrifying fear a mother goes through knowing that her child is missing,” the family’s lawyer Sanford Rubenstein said. “This never should have happened and the JetBlue employees should be ashamed of themselves.”
“While the children were always under the care and supervision of JetBlue crew members, we realize this situation was distressing for their families” – JetBlueCredit: JOE RAEDLE.
And in Boston the same scenario was repeated with a woman there who was waiting for her child. Wow.
Both unaccompanied five-year-old boys had boarded at Cibao International Airport in the Dominican Republic. Ms Martinez said her son was wearing a wristband with his name on it, but the other child was carrying Andy’s passport.
“Upon learning of the error, our teams in JFK and Boston immediately took steps to assist the children in reaching their correct destinations,” the airline said in a statement at the time. “While the children were always under the care and supervision of JetBlue crew members, we realize this situation was distressing for their families.”
JetBlue put Andy on a flight to New York that same day, and refunded Martinez $475 for Andy’s return ticket and also gave the family $2,100 in credit.
That was a nice gesture from the airline, but it appears it’s not going to keep Martinez for suing them for a hell of a lot more.
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