JetBlue US airline has being sued for reuniting mother with the wrong child

 US airline JetBlue is being sued for mixing up two young boys who were travelling unaccompanied, sending them to the wrong destinations to the great distress of their families.


According to Maribel Martinez, she was shocked when JetBlue staffers presented her with an unfamiliar boy of 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.”

The report from msn had it that Martinez has since filed a lawsuit against JetBlue for unspecified damages, for the “great emotional distress, extreme fear, horror, mental shock, mental anguish and psychological trauma”.

The New York mother had 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.

It took airline staff three hours to locate the child, who had accidentally been flown to Boston. “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 realise this situation was distressing for their families" - JetBlueCredit: JOE RAEDLE.

 Meanwhile in Boston, Andy was told he would be reunited with his mother, only to be escorted to a woman he had never seen before.

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 realise 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.

A JetBlue Airways spokesman said the company did not comment on pending legal action.


- msn