Metropolitan Airport NewsMetropolitan Airport News
  • Airport News
    • Publisher’s Message
    • Fast Five
    • On Duty
    • Air Cargo
    • Airline News
    • Airport Community
    • Airport Employment News
    • Airport Safety & Security
    • Company Spotlight
    • Ground Services
    • Intermodal
    • New York Aviation History
    • Non-Rev Traveler
  • Airport & Aviation Events
  • Airport Employment
  • Latest Issue
  • Login

Subscribe for Updates

Get the latest local airport and aviation news delivered right into your inbox each week!

News Updates

Republic Airport Commission Meeting

May 26, 2023

CAO’s 2023 Aviation Job Fair

May 26, 2023

Career Conversations: LI STEM Hub

May 26, 2023
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Metropolitan Airport NewsMetropolitan Airport News
  • Airport News
    • Publisher’s Message
    • Fast Five
    • On Duty
    • Air Cargo
    • Airline News
    • Airport Community
    • Airport Employment News
    • Airport Safety & Security
    • Company Spotlight
    • Ground Services
    • Intermodal
    • New York Aviation History
    • Non-Rev Traveler
  • Airport & Aviation Events
  • Airport Employment
  • Latest Issue
  • Login
Metropolitan Airport NewsMetropolitan Airport News
Home»Airport News»Nothing Is Really Lost Until Fran Can’t Find It
Airport News

Nothing Is Really Lost Until Fran Can’t Find It

Rosalyn HamlettBy Rosalyn HamlettMay 10, 2017No Comments3 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email
Fran Safina JFK Lost & Found
Fran Safina manages the Lost & Found at Kennedy Airport

Fran Safina is a finder of lost loves, of the material kind, at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). She handles and recovers items that don’t have much meaning or intrinsic value to anyone other than the owner. But, as most everyone knows, the loss of a coveted sentimental treasure, well, that can be a tear-jerker.

“I’m known by only one name, (like Cher,)” said Fran, who has maintained the lost and found office for almost nine years at JFK’s Building 14. That’s enough time to have seen and heard it all – both the agony and the ecstasy of travelers who are separated and then reunited with beloved possessions.

“It’s always an adventure in lost and found,” she said recently. “You don’t know what you’re going to receive and who lost it. But it’s so rewarding to connect a patron with their lost property.”

Fran’s got lots of stories. Like the time Fran the sleuth tracked down luggage full of cherished old photographs from a wedding invitation that was also inside. She contacted the wedding venue, which helped locate the owner of the luggage, a mother who had flown to California to work on the family photo albums while attending her dying father, who passed a few weeks later. “She was so overwhelmed with emotion at recovering the photographs that she could hardly speak to me,” said Fran.

An Orthodox couple, newlyweds from Brooklyn, had returned to JFK following their wedding in Israel. A very distraught husband left a phone message that he’d lost his wedding hat at the airport. Fran received a round box with a hat inside a few days later. “He came running to my office to retrieve it. His wife came along, too, and she was in tears.”

JFK-Lost and Found
Fran pictured with her colleagues at Kennedy Airport: Ann Marie Brooke (left) and Gail Braxton (right).

Fran’s recoveries have run the gamut, from the usual spate of phones, canes, walkers and crutches, to immigration papers, green cards and passports and, recently, an official letter from the Vatican with the Pope’s seal and signed by a Vatican official. That was left at a security checkpoint. While Fran may not have the Pope’s influence, at least to one New Jersey man she’s right up there with St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost things and lost causes. The man had dropped off his wife at JFK for a flight to Russia during a recent Nor’easter. When weather cancelled her flight, he told her to check into a hotel. In the confusion, three pieces of luggage were left behind in Terminal 1.
“When he arrived to pick up his wife’s things, he told me that he had prayed to St. Anthony, although his friends had said praying wasn’t likely to do any good,” Fran said. “That man was so happy that St. Anthony had brought him to me that he vowed never to let his wife travel alone again.”

Since 2010, Fran also has supported a recycling program in which she sends unclaimed cell phones to the Cellular Recycler, an independent nonprofit. The organization makes out a check on behalf of the Port Authority that then is donated to programs that improve the quality of life for older New Yorkers and their families.

“I’m sold on the program because it’s a win-win for older people and the Port Authority. It doesn’t get better than that,” said Fran.

To report a loss at JFK, call (718) 244-4225 for detailed instructions on how to proceed with a search.

Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email
Rosalyn Hamlett
  • Website
  • LinkedIn

Creative professional with more than 20 years experience in the areas of communications, public affairs, and government relations in state and federal agencies, and the White House. Consulted for clients in the private and non-profit sectors. Recipient of the National Education Writers Award.

RELATED NEWS & UPDATES

New Terminal One at JFK Builds Out Executive Leadership Team With New Key Hires

New Terminal One at JFK Announces New Partnership with Korean Air

May 22, 2023
DFS Opens New Beauty Concept Store at JFK's Terminal 4

DFS Opens New Beauty Concept Store at JFK’s Terminal 4

May 12, 2023
Sabine Hornig, LaGuardia Vistas, 2020,

Reflections of Time & Place

May 10, 2023
AirTrain Newark Liberty International Airport Solar

PANYNJ Advances Commitment to Sustainability With Record-Setting Solar Projects

April 26, 2023
JFKIAT Celebrates Two New Retail Openings with Double Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

JFKIAT Holds Double Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to Celebrate New Openings

April 11, 2023
Delta Cargo unveils largest cooler facility at New York-JFK Airport

Delta Cargo Unveils Largest Cooler Facility at JFK Airport

March 24, 2023
Add A Comment

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

AIRPORT & AVIATION EVENTS
LGA Airport Hiring Event
May 30, 2023
9:00 AM to 2:00 PM
  • LaGuardia Airport-(LGA)
East Elmhurst, New York
JFK Airport Hiring Event
May 31, 2023
9:30 AM to 3:00 PM
  • John F. Kennedy International Airport-(JFK)
Jamaica, New York
JFK Rotary Club Monthly Dinner Meeting
June 01, 2023
5:30 PM to 8:30 PM
  • John F. Kennedy International Airport-(JFK)
Vetro Restaurant & Lounge
Howard Beach, New York
  • >> More Airport & Aviation Events

Subscribe for Weekly Email Updates

Get the latest local airport news, events, and jobs delivered right into your inbox each week.

Metropolitan Airport News provides timely news, information and updates for both Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ) employees and businesses that provide services at, and around the major New York airports (JFK, LGA, EWR).

John F. Kennedy International Airport
PO Box 300877
Jamaica, NY 11430 USA
Phone: (347) 396-0904
Email Us

Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Flickr
MAY 2023 ISSUE
Metropolitan Airport News - May-2023
LATEST COMMENTS
  • Howard Kaye on Travelers Aid JFK Airport: A Helping Hand Along the Way
  • Julia Lauria-Blum on Larger Than Life
  • Robert lee on Jane Mrosko
  • Jerelyn Zontini on Larger Than Life
  • About Us
  • Advertising Options
  • Charitable Giving Program
  • Back Issue Archive
  • Contact Us
© 2023 Airport Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.