Frontier Airlines mistakenly flew a teenager to Puerto Rico instead of Ohio

A 16-year-old was supposed to fly from Tampa to Ohio, but he ended up on a Frontier Airlines flight to Puerto Rico instead.

• A 16-year-old was supposed to fly from Tampa to Ohio on December 22.
• But he ended up in Puerto Rico after Frontier Airlines didn't scan his boarding pass, he says.
• Spirit Airlines also put an unaccompanied 6-year-old on the wrong flight just days before Christmas.

A 16-year-old intending to fly from Florida to Ohio before Christmas ended up alone in Puerto Rico.

Logan was set to fly from Tampa to Cleveland on December 22 to visit his mother for the holidays, as his father, Ryan Lose, told Business Insider.

But Logan flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico, instead of Cleveland alone just days before Christmas.

Frontier Airlines said in a statement shared with BI that a 16-year-old "mistakenly boarded" a flight to San Juan.

"Both the San Juan and Cleveland flights departed from the same gate, with the San Juan flight departing first," the statement said. "Frontier has extended its sincere apologies to the family for the error."

The teen says no one checked his boarding pass at the gate, according to his father

Lose told Business Insider that his son had flown out of Tampa International Airport several times with his family, but the December 22 flight marked his first time flying alone.

Lose said his family selected Frontier for the journey because it had direct flights from Tampa to Cleveland, so Logan wouldn't have to navigate multiple airports, which was particularly comforting because Logan has anxiety about flying.

According to Lose, Logan reached the gate from where the Cleveland-bound flight was scheduled to depart. But when he arrived, he noticed people boarding a plane, though it was early for his flight.

Lose said his son approached a gate agent to ask if the plane was boarding, and the gate agent confirmed it was. He told BI that the gate agent then checked to see if Logan's bag would fit on the plane and told him to board after looking at his boarding pass — without scanning it.

Once Logan was on board, Lose said he called his mother to tell her he was on the flight, and he then put his headphones in to listen to music to help him stay calm during takeoff. The music blocked out the sound of the flight attendants announcing the flight was going to Puerto Rico, so Logan had no idea he was on the wrong plane.

The teen's family figured out he was on the wrong flight before the airline did

The flight to Cleveland was not supposed to take off until 10:15 p.m., so when Logan's mom called his stepmother at 8:30 p.m. to say he was on the plane, she knew something was amiss.

Lose said his 9-year-old then looked up his brother's flight information and discovered that the Puerto Rico-bound plane had just taken off from the gate Logan's plane was scheduled to depart from later that night.

Lose said he tried calling Logan to see if he was on the wrong plane, but his phone went straight to voicemail.

"If you know 16-year-old boys, they're not going to turn the phone off unless they absolutely have to," Lose said. "So that's when we immediately were like, 'He's on this Puerto Rico flight somehow, and we don't know how he got on it.'"

Lose said his family tried contacting the Tampa airport and Frontier Airlines to get confirmation that Logan was on the flight, but he said Frontier didn't seem to take his concerns seriously. Despite contacting them several times, Frontier didn't verify Logan was on the plane until close to 10 p.m., after he didn't show up to board the Cleveland-bound flight, Lose told BI.

Logan was flown back to Tampa, but his family fears what would have happened if they didn't advocate for him

Once Frontier confirmed Logan was on the flight, it arranged for him to stay on the plane when it landed, as both Lose and Frontier Airlines confirmed to BI.

"He was immediately flown back to Tampa on the same aircraft and accommodated on a flight to Cleveland the following day," Frontier said in its statement.

Though Logan eventually made it to Tampa and Cleveland, Lose said he still feels frustrated and fearful about what else could have gone wrong.

"Had we just believed Frontier that everything was fine, they would have never called us saying that Logan didn't make his flight," he said, adding that Logan could have ended up lost in the Puerto Rico airport.

The teen's experience comes on the heels of news that Spirit Airlines put an unaccompanied 6-year-old on the wrong flight, sending him to Orlando instead of Fort Meyers on December 23.

"The child was always under the care and supervision of a Spirit Team Member, and as soon as we discovered the error, we took immediate steps to communicate with the family and reconnect them," a representative for Spirit Airlines previously told BI in a statement about the incident. "We take the safety and responsibility of transporting all of our Guests seriously and are conducting an internal investigation. We apologize to the family for this experience."

According to ABC News, Spirit also fired the gate agent who took the child to the wrong flight.

Frontier Airlines doesn't have an unaccompanied minor program, though children aged 15 and older can fly Frontier by themselves.