How airlines are handling unaccompanied children amid flight delays, cancellations

ATLANTA — Some minors traveling without adults have been stuck at airports since the major IT outage stranded passengers days ago.

Two Georgia brothers and their friends were stranded overnight in Canada. Channel 2′s Veronica Griffin spoke to the boys and their parents Monday for WSB Tonight.

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They gave her some insight into how the airline navigated the young passengers through their travel nightmare. The boys said they were tired and scared at times, but the crew members never let them out of their sight.

Nathan Knafo, 11, was tired, but happy to finally land back home in Atlanta.

He and his 12-year-old brother and their two young friends were greeted by their parents early Monday evening after all four spent the night at the airport in Montreal.

“They had to like, move us around a lot and change locations,” Sam Knafo said.

Delta Air Lines crews were assigned to accompany them since they were traveling without their parents as part of the unaccompanied minor program.

“That was really troubling for us because we’re four people with a lot of luggage,” Sam Knafo said.

The four young Atlanta travelers were on their way back from a summer camp in Canada, where their parents are originally from.

Their concerns weren’t about being stranded outside of the US, it was like the thousands of other passengers of the past four days - some of them sleeping at the airport, just wanting to be home in their own beds.

Asher Frank, one of the oldest of the group at age 15, said Delta crews explained to them that managing unaccompanied minors during this global software outage is uncharted territory for them.

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“They said this really hasn’t happened before, so they were figuring it out as we went. But that’s really all they told us,” Frank said.

Based on what the kids said, some airline crews are also sleeping in the airport.

Griffin also spoke to a longtime Delta flight attendant who confirmed that.

He said he loves his job and he’s taking all of this one day at a time and that he truly feels for the passengers right now.

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