An American Airlines cabin crew member has gone missing during a layover in Medellin, Colombia, officials confirmed to CBS News Texas.

Friends have identified the DFW-based flight attendant as 32- year-old Eric Fernando Gutiérrez Molina. They say he’s been a flight attendant for 8 years.

CBS Texas spoke with Ernesto Carranza, Molina’s partner of almost 10 years, who says the two live together in North Texas. Carranza says over the weekend, Molina was working a flight out of Miami with a layover in Medellin, and at last check, Molina said he was going out.

“He was going out. He said his flight got delayed till the next day, so he was going to go out with his female coworker,” said Sharom Gil, a friend of Molina.

Eric Fernando Gutiérrez Molina
Eric Fernando Gutiérrez MolinaSharom Gil

Carranza says he started to panic on Sunday when he didn’t hear from Molina.

“Okay, this is off because you should be at work by now. I would’ve already heard like, ‘hey, I’m at work,’ or ‘my phone died and I’m at work,’ but no communication at all. So, I just knew that was like the start of a red flag, like something’s wrong,” said Carranza.

Both Carranza and Gil say they’ve talked with the coworker who went out with Molina; they say she claims she was found disoriented and was taken to the hospital.

 

The airline said it is actively engaged with local law enforcement officials in their investigation and “doing all we can to support our team member’s family during this time.”

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants also told CBS News Texas that it is actively supporting all efforts to help locate its missing colleague in Colombia.

However, friends and family feel like more could be done.

“It’s already been past 72 hours, and we haven’t heard at least any leads. Maybe they don’t want to disclose that I understand, but we feel like we’re trapped in a bubble without any information,” said Carranza.

The State Department said that the “Trump Administration has no greater priority than the safety and security of Americans,” and that it is ready to provide all consular assistance to Americans in need abroad. The department said it could not comment further due to privacy considerations.

Dallas police said a missing person’s report has not yet been filed with the department.

The U.S. Embassy in Colombia did not confirm or deny whether the flight attendant was reported missing in Medellin, saying it is prohibited from speaking about most individual cases under federal privacy laws.

Social media posts asking for information about the missing man are being widely shared by other flight attendants as questions remain about the situation.