A Manhattan mom will file a lawsuit Friday against JetBlue for losing her 5-year-old son, who was traveling alone from the Dominican Republic.
Maribel Martinez is seeking unspecified monetary damages for JetBlue’s negligence in placing her son, Andy, on the wrong flight — the boy ended up at Logan Airport in Boston, instead of Kennedy Airport, where she was waiting for him.
Incredibly, JetBlue representatives presented another little boy to Martinez as her son.
It took several hours before clueless airline officials figured out the two boys had been mixed up at Cibao International Airport in the Dominican Republic.
Andy’s relatives even recorded a video of the boy — seen wearing a backpack and baseball cap — passing through the gate at Cibao Airport with several other kids.
The flight Andy was supposed to be on arrived at JFK Airport shortly before 8 a.m. on Aug. 17 — but Andy was not on that plane.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has asked JetBlue to report back to the federal agency its findings on how the mishap occurred.
Since the feds are relying on JetBlue’s own internal investigation of the facts, Martinez’s lawyer Sanford Rubenstein said the litigation will be the only inquiry “to shine a light on what occurred to prevent it from happening again.”
While waiting to learn her son’s whereabouts, Martinez told the Daily News that she feared he’d been kidnapped.
Martinez claims she suffered “emotional distress, extreme fear, horror, mental shock, mental anguish and psychological trauma,” according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by The News.
Earlier this month, Martinez rejected JetBlue’s offer of a $10,000 “gift.”
JetBlue did not respond Thursday to requests for comment about the suit or an update on how the mishap occurred. The airline has previously stated that both boys were always under the supervision of airline crew members.
