Continental confirms it sent another kid on wrong plane IAH had misdirectred kid flier, too

Continental carrier reports 2nd such incident of week

An 8-year-old Continental Express passenger flying unaccompanied from Houston on Saturday was taken to the wrong destination, the second such case over the weekend confirmed by Houston-based Continental Airlines.

Taylor Williams of College Station, traveling alone on a Continental Express commuter flight departing from Bush Intercontinental Airport, went to Fayetteville, Ark., instead of her destination of Charlotte, N.C., where her father was to meet her.

The next day, 10-year-old Miriam Kamens boarded a Continental Express plane at Boston’s Logan airport and landed in Newark, N.J., instead of her intended destination of Cleveland to visit her grandparents.

The two Continental Express flights were operated by ExpressJet under contract with Continental.

In a statement Tuesday, Continental spokeswoman Kelly Cripe said both incidents occurred when flights with different destinations were loaded simultaneously from the same doorway and that “miscommunication among staff members resulted in the child being boarded on the wrong aircraft.”

“In both circumstances the children were supervised throughout the entire process and were rebooked and routed to the proper destinations on the same day,” Cripe said in the e-mailed statement.

“Continental has clear procedures to assist children traveling alone, and we take the responsibility very seriously,” the statement said. “We have also taken immediate action to reinforce to airport representatives that they must closely adhere to established procedures.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation has been alerted about the errors.

“DOT will conduct investigations if we think there are some violations of the regulations or there was some kind of deceptive practices on the part of the carriers,” said spokesman Bill Mosley. “There are no regulations relating to the treatment of unaccompanied minors on carriers. It’s really up to the carriers and the parents and guardians.”

Parents call forreview

The parents of the children who were sent to the wrong airports, however, say regulators should closely examine how carriers are handling this responsibility.

“I have never seen so much incompetence in all my life,” said Taylor’s mother, Wendy Babineaux of College Station.

The girl was on her way to visit her father, Babineaux’s ex-husband, in Charlotte. After landing instead in Fayetteville, Taylor was flown back to Intercontinental in Houston and then to Charlotte. She did not arrive there until 10:30 p.m. — more than eight hours after she was due, said her father, Rahman Williams.

On Monday — before hearing about the Sunday incident on the flight from Boston — Babineaux hired a lawyer to help her and her ex-husband get a full refund for the cost of the airline ticket and to present their concerns to federal authorities.

“We shouldn’t have to pay anything because it was Continental that messed up,” Babineaux said. “We shouldn’t have to pay for the mess they put my child through. It’s not so much the money; it’s the neglect that they showed my child.”

Compensation

Continental said in its statement that it has apologized to both families and is working with them to resolve the situations.

“The compensation offered to both families is the same,” the airline said, without elaborating.

The families, however, described different compensation offers.

Williams said Continental has promised to refund the unaccompanied minor fee he paid and issue his daughter a $400 travel voucher for a future flight to visit him.

Miriam’s father, Jonathan Kamens, reported on his blog that a Continental customer service representative promised to “refund my daughter’s entire fare and fly her back to Boston in first class for free.”

He wrote that the airline also refunded the cost of the round-trip tickets his in-laws had purchased earlier to fly Miriam back to Boston after her visit and replaced them with first-class tickets, as well.

Kamens said in an interview that he is satisfied with the compensation but disturbed to hear about Saturday’s incident involving Taylor.

“You would think that after this happened on day one that it would not have been a possibility on day two,” Kamens said.

shannon.buggs@chron.com