Community Corner

TALK TO ME, PARENTS: Would You Let Your Child Fly Alone On An Airplane?

We had to ask following another incident in which a young flyer didn't initially show up at her intended destination. This time, it involved United Airlines.

Talk to me, parents: Would you let your child fly alone on an airplane?

Huff Post Parents is reporting another nightmarish incident in which a young traveler wasn't on the plane when it reached its intended destination.

HuffPo blogger and Stanford professor Robert Sutton reported via his own blog that the couple is accusing the airline of losing their daughter and, what's even worse, not really giving a darn:

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Annie and Perry Klebahn's daughter, Phoebe, was flying alone from San Francisco to Traverse City, Mich. via Chicago on her way to camp in late June. However, according to the pair, no United staff showed up to help Phoebe make her connection in Chicago, so she missed her flight. According the the Klebahns' letter to United, which is available in Sutton's post, the couple only knew their daughter did not make it when her summer camp in Michigan called to say she hadn't arrived.

The parents discovered that the airline representative simply forgot to pick up the child in the connecting city, according to the story.

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It took roughly an hour to locate the girl after it was discovered she was "missing." Apparently when the flight landed, she asked the flight attendants for help, but they told her they were busy and she needed to wait. She also asked thrice for access to a phone to call her parents, but was allegedly also told to wait.

Predictably, the airline told HuffPo that the incident wasn't indicative of its service. Still, it follows others in which kids haven been flown to the wrong cities, staff allegedly leaving napping children on planes and other mishaps.

So we ask you, Lakewood parents, what you think.


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