Frontier Passenger Put on Wrong Plane, Flown to Foreign Country Without Passport
A New Jersey woman was flown from Philadelphia to Jamaica instead of to Jacksonville, Florida.
She landed on the Caribbean island of Jamaica without a passport.
Beverly Ellis-Hebard says was not informed her gate had changed when she boarded in Philadelphia.
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A New Jersey woman has described the shocking airport mistake that saw her flown from Philadelphia to Jamaica, in the Caribbean, instead of to Jacksonville, Florida.
Beverly Ellis-Hebard told ABC7 news that she was directed to the wrong plane and didn't have a passport with her.
Ellis-Hebard, who travels often between her home state of Pennsylvania and her second home in Florida, was taking a regular flight with Frontier Airlines to go for a break in the sunshine state.
Everything was going smoothly until she needed to use the restroom shortly before the flight was due to take off. She was told by the agent she had 20 minutes, said Ellis-Hebard.
When she returned, the flight appeared to have almost completely boarded, and she was hurried aboard the plane after the agent checked her boarding pass.
In the confusion, Ellis-Hebard had also cut her hand when she loaded her hand luggage, she told ABC7 News.
Once aboard the plane, a flight attendant tended her wound and said she would be able to relax when the plane landed in Jamaica.
Ellis-Hebard told ABC7, "I laughed. I said, 'I would love to be going there, but I have a beach where I live.'"
"She said, 'Look at me. This plane is going to Jamaica.' And I knew by the look on her face she wasn't joking."
It transpired that in the stress of her injury and having to swiftly board her on the flight, Ellis-Hebard was not informed that her flight to Jacksonville had changed the gates.
The attendant told Ellis-Hebard, "You're entering a different country without a passport. That's bad," per ABC7.
Luckily, Jamaican authorities allowed Ellis-Hebard to remain in the jetway, the bridge between the plane and the airport when she landed, and it meant she had not officially left soil, she was told, said Ellis-Hebard.
She was then put on the next flight back to Philadelphia several hours later.
"It should have never have happened because I did not have a passport. The woman at the gate did not do her job," Ellis-Hebard told ABC7.
Frontier Airlines told the news outlet that they had refunded her original ticket and given her a $600 voucher as a gesture of goodwill.
Frontier Airlines told ABC7: "We extend our utmost apologies to Beverly Ellis-Hebard for this unfortunate experience. We sincerely regret that Ms. Ellis-Hebard was able to board the wrong flight."
The airline did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Source: Business Insider
