11-year-old misses flight; West Warwick family threatens legal action
By: Samantha Fenlon
Email: sfenlon@abc6.com
Twitter: @SFenlonABC6
WEST WARWICK, R.I. (WLNE) — A West Warwick family is threatening to take legal action after they say their 11-year-old was left behind at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. The Bruns family blames Spirit Airlines for the ordeal; meantime, the airline stands firm that it did nothing wrong.
Mason Bruns was traveling back from a BMX competition when he missed his flight on Monday. It was the 11-year-old’s birthday.
"I didn’t think I was going to make it home,” said Mason Bruns.
His parents paid an extra $100 to Spirit Airlines to designate him as an unaccompanied minor. As they tell the story, Mason checked in with the help of a family friend. When he arrived with that adult family friend at the gate he was told he missed the flight.
"I went up to the counter and they wouldn’t let me on. They said that the door was already shut and they couldn’t let me on,” said Mason Bruns.
"I can’t imagine just leaving a child at the airport. You put a boarding pass together for this child and now you don’t know where he is. That’s kind of scary in a big airport,” said Mason’s dad Joshua Bruns.
Bruns says his son arrived at the gate 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time. He also claims the boy was never paged over the intercom system.
Spirit Airlines tells a different story. Spokesperson, Stephen Schuler says Mason arrived 5 minutes after the gate closed and that "multiple announcements were made regarding the final boarding call for this flight."
Once Mason missed the flight, the Bruns family says they found out about it from their son, not the airline.
"Spirit Airlines took no responsibility for it and wouldn’t talk to any of us. Us over the phone or my family friend because they were not the guardian of the child,” said Joshua Bruns.
Schuler says many of the claims made by the family are not true. He says the airline offered to help re-book the 11-year-old doing everything they could to help. Schuler also emphasized to ABC 6 News that at no point was the child left alone.
Mason did arrive home Monday night. His parents booked him a flight on United.
Spirit says they refunded the Bruns’ out of courtesy.
©WLNE-TV / ABC6 2017
