Utah teen stuck in Miami by himself during worldwide IT outage that caused airport chaos

SALT LAKE CITY — The ongoing string of canceled flights from the recent worldwide IT outage has left a 16-year-old Sandy boy stuck in Miami, traveling by himself for the last four days. His family is desperately trying to bring him home.

Navigating through seemingly endless canceled flights and delays is all the Richards family from Sandy has known for the last four days. Their son Owen has been trying to get home since Thursday.

“Like he can’t rent a car. We look at all the options — I don’t think we’ve ever felt so stuck,” said Jeff Richards, Owen’s father.

Owen’s parents said he was returning home from a humanitarian trip in Uruguay with a layover in Miami when the worldwide IT outage canceled his flight back to Utah, and each one after it. It’s frustrating for everyone traveling, but in Owen’s case, Delta also temporarily paused all travel for unaccompanied minors, leaving him stranded.

“Because minors are not allowed to travel. Which is crazy to us because it would seem like (they) should prioritize minors who are unaccompanied to get them home, especially if they’re mid-travel,” Richards said.

Now, Owen’s family is booking flights on multiple airlines, hoping one of them will work, and to avoid a 37-hour drive from Sandy to Miami to try and pick him up. Owen, trying to stay optimistic, said he hopes he’s home soon.

“I hope so, I really really hope so, because I’m here I missed a swim meet, so I won’t be able to go to our version of State,” he said.

Salt Lake City International Airport Spokesperson Nancy Volmer said Owen’s situation is one in a ripple effect of flights struggling to get back on track since Friday.

“When there’s a delay like this or this outage that occurred, you have aircraft that are scheduled, you have crews that are scheduled and there’s just a lot of shuffling and rescheduling that has to take place,” Volmer said.

For many stuck in Salt Lake, they’re here without their bags.

“Midflight we got diverted, they said there no gates available for our plane to land in Las Vegas, so they diverted us here to Salt Lake City, and once we got here it’s just a zoo,” said Barry Barakat, who was diverted from New York City.

“We had to get our own hotel for the past four nights, did book another flight, it was canceled last night, still don’t know where our luggage is,” said Molly Slenker, who got stuck during Salt Lake City layover.

“I have some of my medication in there, really lucky I brought a day extra in my backpack just in case,” said Regan Levy, whose luggage was diverted on a different flight.

For the Richards family, it’s the opposite. Owen’s bag is here, but he’s not. They’ve reached the end of their rope.

“We’re super frustrated, I don’t think we’ve ever been more frustrated with a situation,” Richards said.

At last check, the Richards have their son booked on a flight with Southwest arriving in Utah Monday night. They’re crossing their fingers this one sticks.