Good Evening to everyone, on this Family day.
We have been traveling and I have barely kept up with the wonderful and dedicated posts on this thread.
I made a note a few days ago about minors flying alone.
Yes, thousands and thousands of minors, have at some point in their lives, flown unaccompanied. This even includes me, many years ago. Many on this thread have also stated that they too flew as unaccompanied minors and everything went swimmingly even on connecting flights.
My husband and his brother are long time international track & field coaches and have taken thousands of youth athletes all over the world. Exceedingly often, they would put minors as young as 10, on a flight back home as Unaccompanied Minors, with Absolutely No issues.
In 2001, my husband was the only Coach/Adult with 11 youth athletes in Sacramento, CA. Two siblings were 12 and 10 and needed to fly back to the east coast in time for school to start. My husband took them to the airport to put them on the flight I had purchased just 3 weeks prior, After confirming the process for unaccompanied minors. The airline then Refused to allow these young athletes to board the flight home.
Why? Because it was a connecting flight. Just a few days before this flight, the airline made new policy based on a series of recent incidents with Lost children on connecting flights.
Yes, Many children have flown as unaccompanied minors for decades. However, more and more issues were happening and many unattended and/or lost children.
Children left on planes that were supposed to get off. Children taken off planes that were supposed to stay on. Children missing their connection, because of miscommunications between flight attendants. Children getting on the Wrong flights and Many left stranded in an airport overnight because everyone was too busy blaming everyone else.
Unaccompanied minors left on board delayed flights while everyone else were allowed to de-plane. If the children happened to be taken off, they were stuck in rooms with a few bags of chips and unable to use the facilities until an adult finally decided to come check on them.
The Most Egregious Issue? The Parents were NOT contacted. Which means that No One Realized a Child Was Missing or Misplaced. The parent was at the receiving end and their child did Not get off the plane.
As air travel became expanded, so did the aircrafts. Hundreds more being squeezed into smaller and smaller seats.
Did the airlines adjust their staffing needs to meet the demands and increased responsibilities of these flight attendants? Generally, NO.
In some instances, the airlines grew way too fast and way too soon, that hiring and staff training suffered. Any increase in cabin staff was minimal at best and many airlines choosing Profits over service.
In some instances, airlines did not have enough quality applicants needed to staff their flights and they were forced to hire staff that would Not have made the cut, just a few years prior.
Passengers with in-flight health issues, passengers causing disruption, and/or other issues have created opportunities for unaccompanied minors to get lost in the shuffle. Minors left at an unsupervised gate of their connecting flight and they have missed their flight and even placed on incorrect flights. If a layover is more than an hour, there may not be staff at the gate yet, where the minor is left to fend for themselves. Many have gone to the restroom and lost their way back to their gate.
Each airline has their own rules and regulations in regards to unaccompanied minors and unfortunately, there is not a Standard across the board.
Some airport facilities, offer Airport staff to manage the child, so that the brunt of the responsibility is not always on the Very Busy flight attendants.
My point is, the Safety of the minor child is of the Utmost Importance and Many airlines are stepping up to the plate to Ensure that each and every one of the unaccompanied minors are managed at 100% Efficiency. Even One child lost, misplaced, and or forgotten, is Unacceptable.
This however, has resulted in stricter rules being imposed by the individual airlines. Such as many airlines choosing a No connecting flights for certain age groups, regardless of the child’s maturity level. There have even been airlines that have refused boarding to a minor if the plane will be traveling through rough weather. The flight attendant’s primary concern is for All the passengers equally, and an unaccompanied minor will upset the balance of that concern or even worse, the child will not receive the needed attention they require.
Needless to say, my husband came home from Sacramento that year, with All the athletes a few days later, once everyone had competed their events. He walked off the plane and informed me that I, Would be traveling with them, going forward. It became imperative as female athletes needed to travel without their parents, in addition to the issues that may arise with sending unaccompanied minors back to their parents. Had I been in Sacramento that year, I would have been able to take the athletes to the airport early the next day to catch a non-stop flight. Especially since my husband could not leave minor children alone at the stadium to compete their events, while the only adult took athletes to the airport.
Bottom Line? I have No issue with MT daughter taking a Non Stop flight from Argentina, into JFK.
I DO take issue with the fact if MT says she is the ‘Only’ adult available to meet her daughter at a Huge International Airport, where More Than Likely, MT will have to obtain a waiver to go through security and meet her child at the Gate.
There is No reason, the people in the life of MT could not meet the child at JFK.
MamaA, PapaT, MT Sister, Attorney Bowman/Office Staff, etc.
Now, there is the issue of JFK being a layover for the child on the way to another city. This is where, I ‘might’ allow the Child to see her mother, even for a few minutes. I do not have any feeling for MT, but this child does need some sort of contact with her mother before the mother is sent away for many years. Sometimes, the Needs of the One (child), Does outweigh the needs of the many. (a reverse of a quote from 'A Tale of Two Cities' and quoted by Spock in a Star Trek movie)
This child did Not ask for any of this and I think we can All agree that she is in a very sad situation. Do we punish the daughter for the sins of the mother? She will be living without her mother for many years to come and if the child has a few minutes with her mother in an airport, I ‘might’ be okay with this, but ONLY if LE is Escorting MT.
‘Apparently, any mother, even a bad one, is better for a child than none’ —Rhett Butler in ‘Gone With The Wind’
It IS in the best interests of CT, to have LE All Over this if the issue is a layover at JFK. If Not, even LE could pick up the child. It does Not have to be MT.
It may seem that I have flipped flopped here, however, I had not taken into consideration that JFK Might be a layover for the child.
IMO.
Just 3 links of the MANY.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/life...32992a-874f-11e6-92c2-14b64f3d453f_story.html
Airline Leaves Unaccompanied Minor Unaccompanied
When Airlines Misplace Children - The New York Timeshttps://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com › 2009/06/23 › when-airlines-misplace...
etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc..........
