Family Claims Surprise Housing Of Kids By Airline 'Failure On So Many Levels'

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A brother and sister taking their first flight without their parents ended up sharing a hotel room with strangers.

Now, their outraged father has hired an attorney to go after the airline.

Carter Gray, 9, and his sister Etta, 7, have been on dozens of flights, but their first flight without their parents was a nightmare, reports CBS2's Jessica Moore.

Attorney Alan Armstrong, who is also a pilot, is representing the Gray family.

"I mean this is a failure on so many levels," said Armstrong.

Around 8 p.m. on July 22, the siblings were put on a Frontier Airlines flight from Des Moines, Iowa, to Orlando, Fla.

Severe weather diverted the flight to Atlanta.

Around 2 a.m., the children's father Chad Gray says airline employees made the decision to take Carter and Etta to a Holiday Inn without his permission.

"We did not hear from a Frontier Airlines employee throughout this whole process, and the only way we received any notification was from another unaccompanied minor that had a cell phone and he let my son call me," said Chad. "They drove to the hotel in a Frontier Airlines employees' personal vehicle."

At 4:30 a.m., Carter sent his dad a text telling him they were at a hotel. There were several other unaccompanied minors in the room and just one female airline employee.

"My son had to sleep with a boy that was five years older than he was," said Chad.

Armstrong questions the airline's decision to fly out of Des Moines when there was a ground stop in Orlando.

The family's attorney says the whole incident shows "negligence, poor communication, no communication really, poor judgement by the pilot."

In a statement Frontier says all parents were contacted, and the airline arranged a hotel room for the children where they were supervised by a Frontier representative.