Boy lost in airport reunited with dad

OMAHA, Neb. – A holiday movie came to life at Denver International Airport after this week’s crippling snowstorm left a 9-year-old Spokane boy among children flying solo who were temporarily stranded.

Cole Churchill was flying alone Wednesday to Omaha to visit his father, with a layover in Denver.

It was a journey he’d made by himself before. But this time, a winter storm dumped 25 inches of snow on the city, forcing the airport to cancel all flights until Friday afternoon.

Nearly 5,000 holiday travelers were stranded, along with Cole, who was among 20 children flying solo on United Airlines who were stuck in Denver.

“He just looked so drained and so tired,” Cole’s stepmother, Tammy Churchill, said Friday evening, after she and Cole’s father picked him up at the Omaha airport. “He says he’s sick of eating McDonald’s.”

Churchill and Cole’s father, Chad Churchill, tried for hours Wednesday to locate the boy after he called his mother, Jamie Proctor, who lives in Spokane, to tell her he was alone in the airport after walking off the plane alone.

“He didn’t know what to do, and he was scared,” Tammy Churchill said.

All unaccompanied minors are required to wear a badge identifying them as children who need escorts. United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said Cole’s badge was covered by the jacket he put on, but said workers should have still noticed him leaving the airplane.

She said an airline escort found Cole in a food court within two hours.

“I apologize on behalf of United,” said Urbanski, who added that the airline was looking into issuing a refund to the family.

After the boy was found, Urbanski said United rushed to reroute him through Chicago because of the approaching storm but he ended up sitting on a plane for three hours, unable to communicate with his family.

“This blizzard was unprecedented. We tried so hard to get him out to Chicago but we couldn’t,” Urbanski said.

Cole spent two days in the airline’s unaccompanied minor area at the airport. The area is equipped with televisions, toys and games and staffed by childcare workers. The airline provided all meals . At night, the boys slept in one room with a male escort and the girls in another room with a female escort.

All the children were allowed to make unlimited phone calls and their parents were also given the number to the play room so they could call in.

The apology fell a little flat for the Churchills. Tammy Churchill said they were furious, and would demand a refund for the flight.

The number of children flying alone has steadily increased over the past few years, and the busiest times are usually around the holidays and during the summer, as children visit grandparents, shuttle between parents or head to camp, Urbanski said.

The minors stranded at Denver’s airport got first priority for seats on flights that took off after the airport reopened, she said.