Have you seen the new movie “Unaccompanied Minors?” It’s a film about a group of kids stranded at a snowed-in airport during the holidays. The movie’s producer–Warner Brothers—categorizes it as a comedy, but for the parents of children traveling alone and stranded at Denver International Airport for the past three days the scenario wasn’t a laughing matter.
The Blizzard of 2006 stranded 9-year-old Cole Churchill in the Denver Airport, but what’s worse is that according to his parents, the unaccompanied boy got lost in the terminal while they frantically tried to track him done by phone for hours.
According to news reports, Cole’s flight originated in Spokane, Washington on Wednesday. He was flying alone to visit his father in Omaha, with a layover in Denver, when the storm dumped more than 2-feet of snow on the Mile-High city and forced the cancellation of all flights until Friday afternoon. The boy was then forced to join nearly 5,000 other stranded holiday travelers, including 20 children who had also been flying solo on United Airlines.
Cole told news reporters that he walked off the plane unnoticed by airline workers, and called his mother in Spokane to tell her he was scared. According to United officials, all unaccompanied minors are required to wear a badge identifying them as children who need escorts, however they say, Cole’s badge was covered by his jacket. (Airline executives later admitted that workers still should have noticed him leaving the airplane.)
Hours later an airline escort found Cole sitting in a food court. United executives say once they tracked him down they rushed to reroute him through Chicago because of the approaching storm, but he ended up sitting on a plane for three hours, unable to communicate with his family.
Officials with the airline told local news reporters they were looking into issuing a refund to the family. A United spokesperson also issued this statement: “This blizzard was unprecedented. We tried so hard to get him out to Chicago, but we couldn’t.”
The apology meant little to Cole’s parents who said they are still furious and got “absolutely no explanation, no apology that entire day–we basically got the cold shoulder. Everyone was too busy.”
In the end, Cole spent two days in the airline’s unaccompanied minor room at the airport, which is equipped with televisions, toys and games, and is staffed by child-care workers. But the good news: he finally made it to Omaha late Friday.
Would you consider allowing your child to fly unaccompanied? If you answered yes–consider reading my other blogs below.
Do you agree that United did all they could in this case?
Related Articles:
When Kids Must Fly Alone–Part One
When Kids Must Fly Alone–Part Two
Flying with Children: Layover or Not?