I-Team: Frontier Airlines apologizes after man with dementia gets lost at Logan Airport
NORTON - Tina Morel is very protective of her dad Joseph, a Korean War veteran who suffers from dementia. Last week, after the two of them got off a flight from Florida at Logan Airport, Joseph went missing. Tina said she started to shake wondering where he could have gone.
The 85-year-old was being pushed in a wheelchair by a Frontier Airlines worker. That worker was supposed to wait for Tina who stopped to use the restroom on their way to baggage claim. But Tina says minutes later when she came out her dad was nowhere to be found.
After Tina says airline employees were not helpful, she called 911. Massachusetts State Police troopers searched the terminal with a description of Joseph who by now had been missing for two and a half hours.
"I'm thinking what if he goes outside, what if he just gets lost, what if I can't find him, what if somebody takes him," Tina Morel said. "All these things were going through my head. That somebody might hurt him. He doesn't know where he lives... he knows his name but he can't tell you anything."
Heart stopping moments later, police found him. "My father was now out of the wheelchair, no wheelchair to be found, and my father was just standing there," Morel said.
Tina is grateful to the police but furious at Frontier. "It is a safety issue. There should have been an alert somehow, sent out through the whole building, or gave a description of him or something so somebody could find him, other than just blowing me off," she said.
The I-Team reached out to Frontier who told us, "Joseph and Tina Morel were traveling together from Orlando to Boston. Upon arrival in Boston, our third-party wheelchair service provider transported Mr. Morel to baggage claim. Believing that Mr. Morel had given the wheelchair provider permission to leave him at baggage claim and knowing that he was traveling with a companion, the service provider left him there. We sincerely apologize for any misunderstanding and for any distress the situation may have caused Mr. Morel."
Tina is happy her dad was found but the whole experience she says was awful. Airlines are required to help assist folks with disabilities. The U.S. Department of Transportation says passengers who are not independently mobile cannot be left alone for more than 30 minutes and passengers who believe their rights were violated can file a complaint.
CLICK HERE more information and how to file a complaint.