Plan B Forum

A dog has died on a United Airlines flight after an attendant forced the animal’s owner to put the pet in the cabin’s overhead bin. The airline said it was taking full responsibility.

On United Flight 1284 from Houston to New York on Monday, a woman who was flying with children and a small dog was pressured by a flight attendant to put her dog in overhead storage during the three-and-a-half-hour flight.

According to fellow passenger Maggie Gremminger, the woman wanted to keep the dog, which was in a small carrying bag, under her seat, but the flight attendant insisted that she put the animal overhead.

“At the end of the flight, the woman found her dog, deceased. She sat in the airplane aisle on the floor crying, and all of surrounding passengers were utterly stunned,” Gremminger wrote in a series of tweets alongside a picture of the woman and her children.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ead-locker

Big RR wrote:In a time when airlines passengers are forcing more and more things into the overhead spaces in an attempt to avoid the high checked luggage fees...

Big RR wrote:Actually, I never thought the overhead bins were airtight--more like dresser drawers where can come in and out. That being said, in the winter when they are full of coats as well as carry on bags, I could see where a carrier jammed into the bin could not have much air, and demanding that someone put a live animal there is ridiculous. And add to that that the dog was a bulldog, which most airlines (not sure about United) will not allow to fly because of the snub nosed face and breathing problems; it makes exiling him to the overhead bin ever worse.

And yesterday I heard on the news that United sent a dog in a checked carrier to Japan instead of a California to Kansas City flight; the airline apologized and made some comment about the rare incidence of misplaced luggage. Come on, this is a live animal, not someone's shorts--you'd think they'd pay more attention to where it goes.

So much for the Friendly Skies.

CHICAGO—United Airlines has announced it will issue special bag tags for animal carriers and prosecutors have launched an investigation to determine if criminal charges are warranted following the death of a French bulldog puppy that was forced into an overhead bin on a United flight.

The Chicago-based airline said a flight attendant who ordered the passenger to put her pet carrier in the overhead bin aboard a Houston-to-New York flight Monday didn’t know there was a dog inside.

“To prevent this from happening again, by April we will issue bright coloured bag tags to customers travelling with in-cabin pets,” United said in a statement.

The family that owned the dog and other passengers contradicted the airline’s account, saying the dog’s barks were audible from inside the bin.

Eleven-year-old Sophia Ceballos told NBC News that her mother told the flight attendant “’It’s a dog, it’s a dog,’ and (the flight attendant) said we have to put it up there,” in the bin.

Other passengers backed up the family’s account on Twitter and Facebook.

Bicycle Bill wrote:

Big RR wrote:In a time when airlines passengers are forcing more and more things into the overhead spaces in an attempt to avoid the high checked luggage fees...

FIFY

-"BB"-

BoSoxGal wrote:

Big RR wrote:Actually, I never thought the overhead bins were airtight--more like dresser drawers where can come in and out. That being said, in the winter when they are full of coats as well as carry on bags, I could see where a carrier jammed into the bin could not have much air, and demanding that someone put a live animal there is ridiculous. And add to that that the dog was a bulldog, which most airlines (not sure about United) will not allow to fly because of the snub nosed face and breathing problems; it makes exiling him to the overhead bin ever worse.

And yesterday I heard on the news that United sent a dog in a checked carrier to Japan instead of a California to Kansas City flight; the airline apologized and made some comment about the rare incidence of misplaced luggage. Come on, this is a live animal, not someone's shorts--you'd think they'd pay more attention to where it goes.

So much for the Friendly Skies.

Trunks aren’t airtight either, but you can suffocate in one. You can suffocate in a dresser drawer, too - I’m sure that’s happened to small kids. Any enclosed space without sufficient fresh air exchange becomes a toxic environment once the carbon dioxide overwhelms the oxygen. Dogs breath fast and pant heavily when stressed, which this pup no doubt was - which means he very quickly overwhelmed the oxygen balance in that small space and suffocated on CO2. Sadly, it’s not a painless death like suffocating on helium or nitrogen or argon is - that dog experienced panic and suffering in his final moments of life. Really reprehensible and I’m sure the family - the kids especially - will have nightmares. I hope the steward loses her/his job.

I’d have demanded to speak to the pilot or walked off the plane and then sued the airline.