John Kerrigan was flying Southwest in late October with his daughter and one of her friends. Unbeknownst to him, the flight crew contacted airport security, reporting him for allegedly trafficking the two girls. While the embarrassing incident did not escalate any further than an interview with officers, Southwest put extra salt in the wound by sending Kerrigan a non-apologetic email and a flight voucher.
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The whole incident took place on October 21 during a Southwest flight from Denver to Virginia. The flight crew became worried as soon as they saw Kerrigan and the two girls, ages 15 and 16, board the connecting flight at Denver International Airport. After boarding, Kerrigan got up to use the restroom. There, a flight attendant approached the girls.
"She keeps asking if we're all right and if we know you," Kerrigan's daughter told him, according to WAVY. "And I said it seemed strange," he said. And he wasn't wrong. At that point, the flight crew had already contacted Norfolk International Airport, suspecting John Kerrigan was a human trafficker.
He was met with airport security as soon as they arrived. "[They said,] 'Sir, would you follow us? We'd like to ask you some questions,'" he said. "I said, 'This is offensive.' I did find it very offensive. I mean, I hadn't done anything wrong." Airport officers would later learn that he, in fact, hadn't done anything wrong. After questioning Kerrigan for 20 minutes, they let him go without any charges whatsoever.
A Non-Apology
In compensation for his embarrassment, John Kerrigan expected an apology. However, he instead received a $1,500 flight voucher and a non-apologetic email. According to him, the email was plagued with phrases such as "we regret your disappointment." Nowhere in the email did he find the word "sorry."
"It's kind of like a non-apology type of 'thank you' or 'have a nice day'-type of thing," he told WAVY. "It didn't seem to faze them too much. I guess it's just a large corporation and they figure they'll take a publicity hit here or there."
Kerrigan expressed complete support for the efforts that airlines such as Southwest go through to prevent human trafficking. He, however, questions the methods. "That was just a horrible way to go about it," he said. "We all would like for them to catch child traffickers. That's a worthy goal. But to humiliate somebody?" He described the whole situation as "complete BS."
