NOT SUCH A MINOR PROBLEM

Posted on 02/25/2016 | About North Carolina

A family in North Carolina paid an extra $300 to send their daughter unaccompanied to New York to visit family. On her return journey the child faced delays, diversions and cancellations but the girl’s mother is most upset that the airline lost track of where her daughter was.

Corinne Chausse said she would never even have known Maggie’s plane was diverted in Columbia if her daughter didn’t have a cellphone.Eleven year old Maggie was due to land in Charlotte at 8:50 last Monday night on a flight with American Airlines. At 1:30 am Corinne Chausse and her husband heard from their daughter. Her flight was re-routed to Columbia South Carolina, due to weather conditions. Maggie told her parents that her flight was cancelled and she had to get off the plane. Mom and dad set out to Columbia to pick her up when they were notified by the airline that the flight would in fact go ahead to Charlotte.  They drove back. When they got to Charlotte they were informed that the flight was cancelled.  They called the airline, who tried to calm the parents, telling them that Maggie was in a room for minors at the Columbia airport. Then Maggie called to say she was still on the plane. The Chausse family was angry and frustrated and understandably their child never wants to be on an airplane again.American Airlines confirmed the flight was delayed because of weather and responded to WSOCTV Channel 9 who interviewed the parents: "The flight had to divert to Columbia due to bad winds and ice here in CLT. Upon landing in Columbia, an indicator light went off that caused a maintenance issue. The customers stayed on the plane for a while after they landed in CAE because they thought they were going to be able to fix the maintenance issue. The customer service team did bring the customers water at that point. When the supervisor came on to bring the water, the flight attendant called Miss Chausse up to the front so she could call her mother. The mother offered to drive down to CAE and the supervisor said that would probably be the best course of action since we weren’t sure if or when the plane would be fixed."