Are Unaccompanied Kids Safe on Airplanes?

June 17, 2009 — -- Airlines are notorious for sending luggage to the wrong destination but Continental are now developing a reputation for sending young children to the wrong place too.

"Oh my god," said Christine Koh, a mom of one in Boston, when she heard about two separate instances over the weekend in which unaccompanied young children boarded the wrong aircraft and traveled to the wrong destinations.

"This makes me totally hyperventilate," said Koh.

On Saturday, an 8-year-old Houston girl mistakenly ended up in Fayetteville, Ark., instead of Charlotte, N.C. Then on Sunday, a 10-year-old girl from Boston flew to Newark, N.J., instead of Cleveland, where she was headed to visit her grandparents.

Both girls were boarding planes operated by ExpressJet, which is operated by Continental Airlines.

A representative from the airline told ABCNews.com that it has fully reimbursed both families and is addressing the situation with the individual employees who were involved in the incidents.

"We literally fly thousands of unaccompanied minors every year," said Kelly Cripe, a spokeswoman for Continental Airlines. "This is not something that happens on a regular basis. It's more like a freak accident that it would happen back-to-back like this."

Cripe said that airline policy is such that unaccompanied minors are under the supervision of gate attendants who then pass them off to a flight attendant. Parents are also given a sort of faux boarding pass so they can accompany their children to the aircraft's gate.

In the two incidents over the weekend, Cripe said that two flights were departing simultaneously from a single doorway and a "miscommunication among staff members" resulted in the mix-up.

But some parents said that a rare instance of a child being mistakenly flown across the country is enough to worry them.

Amy Kuras, a mother of two in Detroit, said that Continental's missteps have "reaffirmed her fears" about letting her children travel alone.