The risks of children flying solo

The Globe and Mail, Douglas McArthur, Special to The Globe and Mail, published July 18, 2010

A Chicago-area father is suing Southwest Airlines, alleging staff failed to protect his 14-year-old son from an older woman who made sexual advances during a flight from Chicago to Florida.

According to attorney Jeffrey Deutschman, the teenager was not allowed to change seats despite repeated requests to flight attendants. The suit alleges the woman became intoxicated during the flight, harassed the child sexually and offered him illicit drugs.

It's a story to shock any parent whose child must sit alone on an airplane, which happens more than many may realize, especially during summer time when many children travel unaccompanied to attend camps, visit family, or as part of a shared-custody arrangement due to divorce or separation.

Air Canada, for example, carries 10,000 unaccompanied minors a year. Its website promises the children "are escorted by our highly trained staff from the moment they arrive at airport check-in until they reach their destination." Most airlines carry unaccompanied minors (UMs) upon payment of a fee, promising someone will watch over them through their journey.

But such close attention isn't always possible.

On occasion, children are sent to the wrong destination. Last month, Delta Air Lines sent two unaccompanied minors to the wrong city. One boy was flown to Cleveland instead of Boston during a connection. And a girl, destined for Cleveland, ended up in Boston. A Delta spokesman called the incident "exceedingly rare" and the airline offered the families apologies and refunds for their tickets.

WestJet scrapped its UM program in 2007 after a five-year-old Edmonton girl was led off the plane by a concerned fellow passenger who said the girl was being ignored by the cabin crew. WestJet replaced its UM program with a guardian fare, which allows parents or guardians to escort their children to their destination at a 50 per cent fare reduction.

"For all the money they charge, the airlines act as though somebody is actually going to watch over the child at every stage of the journey," says Diana Fairechild, a New York-based passenger advocate and former flight attendant. "It's not possible. Flight attendants are overextended and very busy, no matter how much they'd love to help. And many of them have children of their own."

Ms. Fairechild notes the Southwest case shatters the common perception children are safer seated beside a woman than a man. Most airlines, in fact, make every effort to give UMs a female seatmate.

Sending a child on a solo flight can be traumatic for most parents. But others worry if their child has to sit alone, even if they are on the same aircraft.

Liane Netherton of Elmvale, Ont., said she was unable to reserve adjoining seats for herself and her six-year-old daughter Samantha, when making an online booking for Christmas flights to Florida with United Airlines. She phoned reservations for assistance and was told the only way to guarantee her daughter would ride beside her was to pay an additional fee for Economy Plus seating. She did.

"It turned out to be a blessing," she says. Because of a snowstorm in Chicago and tightened security rules connected to a terrorist scare, passengers sat on the tarmac in Toronto for five hours. Being cut off from a small child for that time in a confined airplane cabin would be any passenger's nightmare.

As for worries about unaccompanied minors, travel guru Ms. Fairechild offers this advice: "Parents should look around the departure area and look for a family travelling together," she says. If you introduce your child to them, there is at least someone the youngster can talk to if there is a problem during the flight.

"You still can't be 100 per cent sure," Ms. Fairechild says, "but it's better than nothing."