- Maria Larios, 80, was supposed to fly to Raleigh-Durham International Airport
- Her family requested special assistance for her because she can’t speak English and is partially blind
- Larios was issued the wrong boarding pass and ended up in Denver instead
- She landed in Raleigh, North Carolina, six hours after she was supposed to arrive
A United Airlines flight flew an 80-year-old woman who is partially blind to Colorado instead of North Carolina after giving her the wrong boarding pass.
Maria Larios was supposed to meet her family at Raleigh-Durham International Airport at 6pm on Tuesday, but she boarded the wrong flight and ended up 1,400 miles away from her intended destination.
Larios’ family arranged special assistance for the 80 year old because she is elderly, partially blind and doesn’t speak English.
Members of the Denver International Airport were eventually able to place Larios’ on a different flight and she landed in Raleigh at midnight that evening.
Maria Larios, 80, was placed on the wrong United Airlines flight in Houston, Texas. She was supposed to go to North Carolina but was instead sent to Colorado. Larios, who is partially blind and speaks no English, was issued the wrong boarding pass by the airline
But Larios’ daughter-in-law Mikki Paradis doesn’t understand how someone let the elderly woman on the wrong United Airlines flight.
‘How is it possible that a woman got on a plane that she did not have a boarding pass for and is now in another state?’ Paradis said to WRAL.
Larios was travelling from El Salvador and had a layover in Houston, Texas. But somehow she boarded the wrong plane.
Paradis told WRAL that her mother-in-law received the wrong boarding pass which allowed her to board the plane to Colorado instead of the one to North Carolina.
United Airlines submitted a statement to WRAL after the error occurred.
United Airlines issued an apology to the family and said they would investigate the issue. Larios landed in North Carolina six hours after she was supposed to arrive. Pictured is a stock photo of a United Airline plane
The statement said: ‘Our customer care team is in contact with her family to ensure we make this right.
‘We are also investigating this incident internally to better understand what happened so that we can prevent this from happening again.’
United Airlines issued a refund and travel certificate.