remember seeing it yesterday and was appalled. not to fault the lady but how would she have been cool storing her dog up there? I'd rather be kicked off then leave a family member in one of those bins
United adopted PetSafe from Continental. Many years ago, I used to work for the guy at CO that created it. It was the industry-leading product at the time. Looks like UA has messed it all up.
I don't get it..Did the dog just quietly die up in the bin? No barking? No one opened it up every 20-30 mins to see if it was okay?? WTF MAN. The poor dog choked to death without air??!?! EDIT: Passengers say they heard barking during the flight and didn't know that the dog had died until the plane landed at LaGuardia Airport.
seems like the airline can do no right. how is their business numbers doing since the last couple of years?
At least it wasn't a KAL flight. There has to be more to this story, there's no way that 1) a responsible pet owner lets them put it in the overhead bin; and 2) that sucker doesn't get checked on every 15 minutes or so, at minimum
I heard from all of the pet deaths on flights, United had 75% of them. It's something like 17 of the deaths last year.
United is also one of the biggest airlines including all its partners. If you're going to compare airlines, you need incidence rates, not raw numbers.
I heard this also but we don't know their domestic market share for live animals. It is probably quite high, though I doubt it's 75%.
I also read that the flight attendant who told her to put the bag in the overhead bin was devastated afterward and said she didn't know a dog was even in the bag. WTF? Anyone who thinks their dog would survive 3 hours in an overhead bin that is closed with no air getting in is really ignorant or just plain dumb. The only real choice would have been to get off the plane or find another way.
The little girl said in interviews they specifically told the flight attendant there is a dog in the bag and said it won't be able to breathe up there repeatedly. The girl said the flight attendant said it doesn't matter and needs to be up in the bin. Passengers have backed the little girl and there's really no way the flight attendant didn't know. My wife almost cried since we have a french bull dog also and this could have been easily avoidable too which is the sad part. According to a US Department of Transportation report issued in February, 24 animals died in the care of US carriers last year. Three-quarters of those, 18, died while being handled by United. Of 15 reported injuries, 13 occurred with United. Of the problems documented in the DOT report, which include death, injury and loss of animals, United had the highest rate of incidents: For every 10,000 animals transported, United had 2.24 incidents. The airline was also the largest transporter of animals, carrying 138,178 animals in 2017. Alaska Airlines, which transported the next-highest number of animals (114,974), had an incident rate of 0.26, one-tenth the rate of United.
No flight attendant would ever make a person put a pet up over in the overhead bin if they knew that there was a dog in the bag. Its part of training an SOP. This is probably what happened. FA was doing their last predeparture checks, walking down the aisle and checking seat backs, tray tables, floor bags...etc. Saw that this particular bag was not fully under the seat said that the bag needs to go overhead, then proceeded down to the next row and so forth. While the passenger, who hasn't flow much mind you, followed directions and did as told. FA didn't know a dog was in the bag. Passenger did as was told. People vouch for the passenger because lets be real, people just flat out hate the airlines. No flight attendant would ever "make" anyone put a animal in the overhead. I just find that impossible to believe. Its beaten into their heads not to put live animals in the bin. NONE. Not saying this absolves United at all as I am sure there are multiple failures in the chain here. I think its just a giant misunderstanding on BOTH sides that caused this. I want to know is this, how in the heck on over a 3 hour flight do you not check up on the animal at all during the flight? To me this is almost too hard to believe, like how Spirit Airlines "made" that girl flush her hamster in the toilet. Have we lost all common sense? As a airline professional for 15 years, I am just appalled at both sides.
Read something about there being a lot of turbulence on the flight and they were not able to get up. I guess the seat belt signs were on? So many failures in this scenario. Hard to believe.
Ok well your story doesn't add up to what they have said. The flight attendant saw the pet carrier and said it needs to be out of the aisle or passengers will trip. The little girl said we have our dog in there, he can't breathe in the bin multiple times according to the girl. The girl reportedly said the FA said it doesn't matter, it has to go in the bin. When you hold a bag with a dog in it, you will feel it moving, the FA was the one who helped put the bag up in the bin. I don't know why passengers would blatantly lie with something that egregious and basically accusing the FA of animal cruelty. Also the mom said the dog was barking non stop for 2 hours and then after that it stopped and there was a lot of turbulence and they were not allowed to get up which is why she couldn't go check on their dog.
It's possible or probable the flight attendant is lying after the fact due to the end result...to cover her own ass. But, I have to place a lot of blame on the mom otherwise. It seems that not one time did they open the bin to check on the dog and the time to check on the dog is not when it stops barking after two hours. Also, not sure what the other passengers in listening distance were thinking, either? Would it kill someone to get up to open the bin and check on the dog...even if not your own dog? I just have a hard time understanding a lot of this. It's like nobody could be bothered to check on the dog even once.
it is a really bizarre story. maybe the mom isn't very experience in flying and didn't know it wasn't vented. or when the FA said to put the dog up there, that maybe they thought it would be okay? i have no idea though, it sucks their dog died on a very easy avoidable situation
What have "they" said? Last I saw they didn't say anything publicly, or is this twitter news? I just cant believe this would happen. FA's under no circumstances are to put any living animal in the overhead bin. EVER. Its policy, and if she/he blatantly went against that then she needs to be fired. I just find the narrative you posted a little too convenient and detailed. People always embellish stories once they lawyer up, come on.
