CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s a parent’s nightmare. An 11-year-old girl was traveling alone on a flight to Charlotte that was delayed for hours and then diverted.
The girl’s mother told Channel 9 that American Airlines didn’t even know where her daughter was.
An 11-year-old girl’s flight was supposed to arrive Monday at the Charlotte-Douglas airport, but it never did.
Eyewitness News anchor Liz Foster spoke exclusively with Maggie’s mother. She said she would never have known Maggie’s plane was diverted in Columbia if her daughter didn’t have a cellphone.
American Airlines told Channel 9 that they have reached out to the family and tried to remedy the situation.
Corinne Chausse told only Channel 9 about her family’s panicked emotions as she was expecting her daughter’s American Airlines flight from Syracuse.
Maggie was spending time with family and was supposed to return to Charlotte at 8:50 p.m. Monday, where Corrine Chausse and her husband were waiting.
At 1:30 a.m., Maggie called saying she was in Columbia, her flight was canceled, and someone was taking her off the plane.
American Airlines confirms the flight was delayed because of weather. American Airlines provided a response to Channel 9: "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."
“I’m getting frantic, because I have no idea who took her off (the plane), where she is, what she’s thinking,” Corinne Chausse said.
Then Maggie’s parents lost contact with her for more than an hour. They started driving to Columbia and called American Airlines trying to get information.
Halfway to Columbia, American Airlines said the flight wasn’t canceled and Maggie’s plane would land in Charlotte.
Her parents drive back to Charlotte, only to get a terrifying call from the airline.
“The agent comes on and is apologetic (and says), ‘I’m sorry ma’am, that flight was canceled. Your daughter is in Columbia,’” Corrine Chausse said.
As they drove back to Columbia around 2 a.m. Tuesday, Corrine Chausse said a representative for American Airlines told her Maggie was in a room for minors in the Columbia airport.
Corrine Chausse said five minutes later, her daughter called her saying she was still on the plane.
“They lied to me about where she was,” the mother said.
Late Wednesday afternoon, an American Airlines representative told Channel 9 that the flight was canceled because of a maintenance issue on the plane discovered when it landed in Columbia.
An American Airlines spokeswoman said, "The flight finally had to cancel when the issue wasn’t able to be fixed at 2 a.m. Miss Chausse was brought into one of the manager’s offices with a female agent to wait for the mother, and the agent brought her to the mother when she got there."
Corrine Chausse said Maggie was on the plane for nine hours and flight staff didn’t feed her. She’s upset and said the airline never once called her to let her know the flight was diverted and then canceled.
“I think parents need to know. Maybe this is ill-placed trust. It certainly is ill-placed money,” Corrine Chausse said.
Corrine Chausse said American Airlines required her to pay an additional $300 on top of Maggie’s flight cost because she was an unaccompanied minor. The airline’s website states a mandatory $150 fee each way is required for any child traveling alone age 14 and younger. She had green tags, so airline staff knew and would be with her. Corrine Chausse doesn’t think that even happened.
“I don’t want another parent to go through this. They need to look at this system they have in place. They’re charging people $300 for and they need to examine where it failed because it failed drastically,” she said.
Corrine Chausse thinks American Airlines should refund the $300 for extra care for her daughter, but told Channel 9 that she’s more concerned about the damage to her daughter, who said she never wants to fly again.
Corrine Chausse still hasn’t heard back from the airline.
The following is the full statement from American Airlines provided to Channel 9:
<em>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.</em>
<em>The flight finally had to cancel when the issue wasn't able to be fixed at 2 a.m. Miss Chausse was brought into one of the manager's offices with a female agent to wait for the mother, and the agent brought her to the mother when she got there. All concessions were of course closed at that hour, but the station manager did send his shift manager out to buy snacks for the passengers and was able to get some refreshments for them.</em>
<em>Weather and maintenance are certainly never things that we want to affect our operations, but we always have the safety of our customers as the top priority, so we were unable to fly the aircraft back out that night. We did send another aircraft out to get the passengers in the morning, but know that the parents picked her up around 4 a.m. We apologize to the Chausses for the diversion and inconvenience of having to drive to Columbia. Our customer relations team is reaching out directly to the customer.</em>