New Jersey Woman Arrives in Jamaica Without a Passport Following Travel Mishap – A New Jersey woman ended up in Jamaica without a passport. Beverly Ellis-Hebard, a frequent flier, recently told ABC 7, “I fly once every six weeks. I picked Frontier flights because we flew so often.” When she reached the Frontier Airlines gate for her usual flight from Philadelphia to Jacksonville, Florida, she noticed that the display board showed “PHL to JAX”.
Ellis-Hebard inquired with an agent about having enough time to use the restroom since she was moving slower than usual due to her recent back surgery. However, upon her return, she found out that the flight had already boarded almost entirely, as she informed the news station. The agent questioned if her personal item was the correct size to board the flight, so Ellis-Hebard placed it in the baggage sizer. “I put it in and when I went to take it out, my arm right here got all scrapped up. I was bleeding,” she told ABC 7.
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Ellis-Hebard told the station of the interaction, “She said, ‘Come on, come on. Give me your boarding pass.’ I would say I took about ten steps, and she said, ‘Are you Beverly Ellis-Hebard?’ I said, ‘You just had my boarding pass. You just checked me in. Yes!'” According to ABC 7, during the flight, a flight attendant glanced at Ellis-Hebard’s arm and reassured her that she could unwind once they reached Jamaica. “I laughed. I said ‘I would love to be going there but I have a beach where I live,'” Ellis-Hebard told the flight attendant, per the outlet.
“She said, ‘Look at me. This plane is going to Jamaica.’ And I knew by the look on her face she wasn’t joking.” Nevertheless, Ellis-Hebard was not carrying her passport as she believed she was headed to Jacksonville, not realizing that her flight had been reassigned to a different gate that would take her to Jamaica, which was approximately 900 miles away. “You’re entering a different country without a passport. That’s bad,” one of the flight crew members told Ellis-Hebard, per the station.
ABC 7 reported that the crew stayed with Ellis-Hebard until the next flight to Philadelphia, which was scheduled several hours later. She was allowed to wait in the jetway by the Jamaican authorities as it was considered U.S. territory. The Investigative Team contacted TSA, FAA, and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol who stated that Frontier Airline was responsible for ensuring that Ellis-Hebard was properly boarded onto her flight.
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Per ABC 7, Frontier Airlines issued: “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.” “As a gesture of our apology, we have issued a $600 Frontier Airlines flight voucher tied to the name Beverly Ellis-Hebard that is valid for one year.” While Ellis-Hebard also got her original ticket refunded, she told ABC 7 that all she wanted was an apology.
