Dog Passes Away After Being Stuffed in Overhead Compartment of Plane

Flight Attendant Ignored the Situation

Courtesy+of+NBC+news

Courtesy of NBC news

Meri Fullford and Alessandra Basile, Staff Writers

Imagine being a little girl, and getting your first puppy as a present. The excitement you get whenever you see your puppies adorable face. Then, in only under a year, you lose your precious puppy. This was the case for 11-year-old Sophia Ceballos, whose 10 month old French Bulldog was killed after being stuffed in the overhead compartment of a United Airlines flight.

According to NBC news, as the family boarded the plane, the flight attendants started to tell the family to put their carry on bags in the overhead compartment. When the flight attendant told the family to put the carrier in the overhead compartment, the child and the mother both made the flight attendant aware that there was a dog in their carrier. The flight attendant ignored them and continued to force them do what they asked.

There were several passengers on the flight who witnessed the situation first hand. They exclaimed their disgust and noted that they could hear the dog barking for about 2 hours after the plane took off. Right when the plane landed, the family opened the overhead compartment and found the puppy, dead in

 

(French bulldog that passed away)

 

its carrier.

Fellow dog owners were interviewed about this horrifying situation. Onica Mooney, a junior and owner of 3 dogs gave insight on how she would feel if this happened to her dogs.

“My dogs are my literally my best friends. If I ever had to be put in the situation that family did I definitely would have freaked out and gotten off the plane. Your dog is a part of your family and they are 100% priceless,”said Mooney.  Another junior, Amy Clark, stated her thoughts about the experience. “Although, I do not own any dogs this incident is traumatizing. I could never imagine losing a dog, especially on a plane where the family was probably going on vacation to have a good time, but instead it led to the death of their dog.”

In a follow-up statement Wednesday afternoon, United said, “We have spoken to the family, our crew and a number of passengers who were seated nearby. We have learned that the customer did tell the flight attendant that there was a dog in the carrier. However, our flight attendant did not hear or understand her, and did not knowingly place the dog in the overhead bin. As we stated, we take full responsibility and are deeply sorry for this tragic accident. We remain in contact with the family to express our condolences and offer support.To prevent this from happening again, by April we will issue bright colored bag tags to customers traveling with in-cabin pets. This visual tag will further help our flight attendants identify pets in-cabin.”

This isn’t the first time United Airlines has treated passenger poorly. An incident last year was recorded of United Airlines disturbingly mishandling a passenger. They dragged a man off the plane while he was screaming, when they realized they needed more seats for some of the crew members. They are also responsible for 18 pet deaths.

Another junior Lynn Wideberg gave her outlook on this horrible situation, “I don’t have a dog, but my cousin has a golden retriever who is their life. I think of their dog Chloe as mine own and if this happened to her I would never forget it. United Airlines shouldn’t just apologize to the families, the love of a pet is priceless.” said Wideberg.

The American Kennel Club says it’s harder for French Bulldogs to breathe becuase they  have a short nose and are easily stressed which contributed to the dogs death.