Metropolitan Airport NewsMetropolitan Airport News

    Subscribe for Updates

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

    News Updates

    The First American Woman in Space: Unveiling of Sculpture Honors Dr. Sally Ride

    June 18, 2022

    Our Lady of the Skies 2022 Annual Luncheon

    June 17, 2022

    Life-sized Lego Commercial Pilot Unveiled at JFK Terminal 4 Lego Store

    June 16, 2022
    Facebook Twitter Instagram
    Metropolitan Airport NewsMetropolitan Airport News
    • Latest News
      • Publisher’s Message
      • On Duty
      • Fast Five
      • Airport News
      • Air Cargo
      • Airline News
      • Aviation News
      • Airport Safety & Security
      • Airport Community
      • Airport Employment News
      • Airport Company Spotlight
      • Ground Services
      • Intermodal
      • New York Aviation History
      • Non-Rev Traveler
    • Airport & Aviation Events
    • Airport Employment
    • Latest Issue
    • Contact Us
    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

    Life-sized Lego Commercial Pilot Unveiled at JFK Terminal 4 Lego Store

    June 16, 2022

    Gov. Hochul Announces Construction of a New Terminal One at JFK Airport

    June 10, 2022

    Gov. Hochul, PANYNJ, and Delta Air Lines Announce Opening of New Terminal C at LaGuardia Airport

    June 2, 2022

    Whitestone Capital Opens Hampton Inn Newark Airport

    May 25, 2022

    JFKIAT Awards ESP Support Services Contract

    May 20, 2022

    Hawaiian Airlines Moving to Terminal 4 at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport

    May 9, 2022
    Add A Comment

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

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

    UPCOMING AIRPORT EVENTS
    Civil Air Patrol Falcon Squadron Meeting
    June 27, 2022
    7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
    • John F. Kennedy International Airport-(JFK)
    Jamaica, New York
    Civil Rights, Race, & Gender Equity: Pan Am's Diversity in Flight
    June 27, 2022
    1:00 PM to 4:30 PM
    • Cradle of Aviation Museum
    Garden City, New York
    JFK Chamber of Commerce Luncheon
    June 28, 2022
    11:30 AM
    • Russo’s On the Bay
    Howard Beach, New York
    • >> More Airport & Aviation Industry Events
    RELATED NEWS

    The First American Woman in Space: Unveiling of Sculpture Honors Dr. Sally Ride

    By Julia Lauria-BlumJune 18, 2022

    Today a monumental sculpture was publicly unveiled and dedicated to the late astronaut Dr. Sally…

    Life-sized Lego Commercial Pilot Unveiled at JFK Terminal 4 Lego Store

    June 16, 2022

    SAF Has Been Delivered to New York Using Existing Petroleum Pipelines

    June 15, 2022

    PLAY Reintroducing International Flights at New York Stewart International Airport

    June 10, 2022

    Subscribe for Updates

    Get the latest local airport and aviation news 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
    JUNE 2022 ISSUE
    Metropolitan Airport News - June-2022
    LATEST COMMENTS
    • Dayna Harap  - Fast Five on The JFK Air Cargo Association Names New President
    • Ryan on Cockpit Jumpseating: The Best Seat in the House
    • Roberta Bassin on Finding Charlie
    • About Us
    • Advertising
    • Charitable Giving Program
    • Back Issue Archive
    • Contact Us
    © 2022 Airport Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

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