Unaccompanied 6-year-old child put on wrong Spirit Airlines flight

FORT MEYERS, Fla. (CNN) — An unaccompanied 6-year-old child flying on Spirit Airlines to visit his grandmother in Fort Myers, Florida, was instead put on a flight to Orlando.

In an emailed statement to CNN, Spirit Airlines apologized to the family, saying on December 21, the child was supposed to fly from Philadelphia International Airport to Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.

Instead, Spirit Airlines said the child was “incorrectly boarded” on a plane to Orlando.

“The child was always under the care and supervision of a Spirit Team Member, and as soon as we discovered the error, we took immediate steps to communicate with the family and reconnect them,” the airline said in a statement to CNN.

CNN affiliate WINK-TV spoke to Maria Ramos, a woman who identified the child as her 6-year-old grandson.

After the plane he was initially supposed to be on landed and her grandson wasn’t on it, panic set in for Ramos, she told WINK-TV.

Ramos told WINK-TV she got a call from her grandson after he landed in Orlando, and they made the drive of almost 160 miles from Fort Myers to pick up the child.

The airline offered to reimburse them for the drive, Ramos told WINK-TV but more importantly, she wants to know why this happened.

Spirit Airlines did not address how the mistake occurred but said they “take the safety and responsibility of transporting all of our Guests seriously and are conducting an internal investigation. We apologize to the family for this experience.”