Err Canada: Elderly Lady Flies To Boston On NY Ticket

In this new and improved age of airport security, U.S. and Canadian authorities are unsure how a feeble elderly woman who suffers dementia managed to board a flight and fly from Toronto to Boston using a ticket to New York.

The 75-year-old woman from Cambridge, Ontario, was wheeled around Toronto's Pearson International Airport by three different security guards Sunday, said Pete Brandwood, a constable with the Peel Regional Police, the department that investigated the case.

``We have no idea how she got on that plane or who put her there,'' he said. ``She was scheduled to get on a plane to LaGuardia.''

Instead Carmeta Robinson went missing, launching a search of the Toronto airport that turned up nothing, and a media blitz that saw her picture broadcast on Canadian airwaves until she was found Monday at Logan.

``It's not clear which flight she boarded,'' Brandwood said. ``There were three leaving from Toronto to Boston within about a four hour period.''

In the U.S., a spokesman for the Transportation and Security Administration washed his hands of the issue.

``That would be an airline issue,'' said spokesman Christopher White. ``I gotta run.''

Air Canada, which had the flight the woman was supposed to take to the US, is investigating, Brandwood said, but he said his department had no update from the company. Attempts to reach Air Canada at a regular business number after hours were unsuccessful.

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