Juneau to Seattle, One Way, Please
One of the great things about Seattle is that it's the gateway to the United States for lots of foreigners. Alaskans, for example, regularly show up at Sea-Tac, wild-eyed and ready to reach for a knife at the first sign of a bear. They've been fleeing the wilderness and arriving on the shores of Seattle since way before regular air service was established. However, last week a particularly 21st century chain of events led one 15-year-old Alaskan to Seattle; she was on her way to North Carolina to meet an internet boyfriend.
The teenager's mother was able to figure out where she was and where she was headed before the plane landed in Seattle. Law enforcement waylaid the girl and convinced her to fly back to Juneau, although, much to the dismay of the mother, the particulars of the situation didn't allow them to force her to turn around. She was an unreported runaway and, in the eyes of the law and Alaskan Airlines, free to fly where she chose, or at least where her $733 one-way ticket would take her. Now, who did the mother blame for the daughter's flight? The internet? A particular smooth talker in North Carolina? INS? Her own inability to control the use of her internet connection or her $733 dollars (which, wow, that's quite a one-way fare...try Farecast next time)? Or has Seattlest's hamhanded foreshadowing already led you to correctly surmise that she casts the blame fully on Alaskan Airlines?
From the Associated Press:
"How are we supposed to protect our children when Alaska Airlines can just fly them out of here?" she said. "There is a precedent that needs to be set."Pringle learned her daughter had purchased a ticket and was trying to leave town. Family members arrived at the airport trying to stop the girl from leaving. Airline employees refused to give them any of the girl's flight information, she said.
"They knew my daughter was on that plane but they would not remove my daughter from that plane," she said. "I did not authorize my daughter to leave Juneau."
