Update: Woman stranded with her parrot in Puerto Rico heading back to New York City
PUERTO RICO (WABC) -- (This is a previous version of this story. Maria and her parrot have returned home. Please click here to watch the update.)
An 81-year-old woman who has been stranded with her emotional support animal, a pet parrot, in Puerto Rico is coming home to New York City.
Maria Fraterrigo took her pet parrot in a cage to Puerto Rico with her but the same airline that flew her there would not let the parrot fly home with her.
She said her emotional support animal, Plucky, has been inseparable for over two decades since the parrot was born.
The grandmother from the Bronx turned to Eyewitness News for help earlier this week, and we learned on Wednesday night that she and the parrot were on a flight home.
Details of the resolution were not immediately available.
"I got no more tears my mind is blank, just want to go home. That's all, I don't ask for much," Fraterrigo told Eyewitness News reporter Kemberly Richardson on Monday.
Fraterrigo got really close to her African Grey Parrot in 2019.
That's when her husband Richard, a court officer who also worked for the NYPD, passed away from cancer related to 9/11.
"He kept me going, talking to me, making me laugh when I was down," Fraterrigo said.
The couple loved traveling to Puerto Rico with Plucky, and did so for years, before Richard's death.
"I'm ready to fly in a plane and get over there," Robert Fraterrigo, her son, said.
Her son Robert called a long list of airlines and entered an online chat with Frontier asking about bringing his mom's 10-ounce bird on the flight, offering proof that it's a service animal.
The representative replied, "Awesome," in the chat.
Fraterrigo left JFK Airport on January 4 with no problems. Plucky was with her in a TSA-approved carrier.
Then on Saturday, April 5, she cleared security at Puerto Rico's main airport, but when she got to the gate, the Frontier employee told her she could not get on the flight with the bird.
"You won't be able to make the flight. Get rid of your bird and give it to somebody," Fraterrigo said.
Her son had repeatedly contacted Frontier, which acknowledged the mistake on her flight out of New York, saying the bird "was not checked correctly."
The airline refunded the ticket, about $190, and issued a $250 voucher while pointing out its policy of not allowing large birds like parrots in the cabin.
"My mother did nothing wrong and she just needs to be taken care of and sent home, she didn't want anything else but to go home and no one wants to help," Robert Fraterrigo said.
He reached out to smaller airlines to see if his mom could get on a private charter to get her to Tampa, where he lives, but has not been successful so far.
Eyewitness News reached out to Frontier but did not get a response.
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