Perhaps everybody failed. (Except maybe the manager who locked down the terminal). Dad arrived late. Mom may or may not have drilled the procedure into the child. Child should have stayed put till the FA could hand her off. (What was said to the child by the GA and the FA about process we don't know. Either they also failed to drill that into her, or child got panicky and left on her own). Or maybe child was just not mature enough to be flying alone. Whether AA tried to call dad and he didn't answer we don't know.

It appears that neither dad nor child called mom to say she had arrived. When they did not call mom she did not call them. That is a fail.

Last time I flew one of mine UM was maybe 25 years ago. I remember having to have the receiving adult at the airport waiting before he was boarded. (As he told it, they herded several little boys to the back of an MD-80, told them if they got up they were going to smear super glue all over the bottom and stuff them back in their seat, and not to leave till a uniformed flight attendant marched them out).


Edited to add: Flight Aware is not showing a direct flight CHT to MIA. There would have to be a connection that is not mentioned in the video. The early flight they list for today is 5:15 not 6:00. I suppose that could have all changed this week, but maybe I'm becoming a skeptic.