Maribel Martinez
Maribel Martinez was scared to death after the Manhattan mom expected her five-year-old at the airport and didn’t show up!
According to reports, Maribel Martinez –a Dominican Republic native –paid an extra $100 fee for a JetBlue representative to escort her son, Andy onto the plane. Andy Martinez was returning home after spending a few days with relatives in Dominican Republic earlier this month.
The little boy was put on the wrong flight and Maribel Martinez was presented with a different child. Martinez freaked out and spent the next three hours thinking she would never see Andy again. The 38-year-old mom told reporters, “I thought he was kidnapped,” “I thought I would never see him again.”
Martinez said her son was supposed to be on a flight to JFK Airport on August 17 after a family holiday, but Andy ended up miles away in Boston. It took the airline three hours to located him.
She immediately called her relatives in the Dominican Republic who said nothing unusual had occurred at the airport — and that they even waited there 30 minutes after the flight left for New York just to make sure he’d taken off.
When she finally talked to Andy, she recalled the little boy saying “ ‘Mami, they put me on another plane,.’
Andy was placed on the next flight to Kennedy Airport that same day to be reunited with his mom.
Martinez who is not letting the incident to rest, is speaking out regarding the airline’s mishandling of her 5 years old son. Accoridng to the NY Daily News, she has now retained high-powered lawyer Sanford Rubenstein to take legal action against JetBlue for their negligence, which caused her family so much emotional distress this summer.
JetBlue refunded her $475 for the flight and also gave the family $2,100 in credit for future flights.
Martinez says, they shouldn’t have bothered because they will never use JetBlue again.
Maribel Martinez and her husband, Rafael Martinez live in Hamilton Heights with little Andy.
Do you think it was unacceptable for the airline to placed Andy –who was wearing a wristband with his name –on the wrong flight? Thoughts?
