United Airlines – United Apologies

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Juliana Wara, Staff Writer

 

A few weeks ago a dog died in the overhead bin on an United airlines plane due to suffocation. A women by the name Catalina Robledo was traveling with her two children and 10 month old french bulldog. They were traveling from Houston and to New York city, plane ride over three hours.  In flight, a flight attendant had asked them to put their bag in the overhead bin but Catalina refused saying her dog was inside. However, the flight attendant did not care and continued to argue with the family until the bag was put up there.

Catalina and her daughter Sophia explained the situation on Good Morning America.  Sophia saying, “She (the flight attendant) just closed it like it was a bag.”  Another quote comes a witness who sat behind the family and had tweeted about saying, “The pet owner was very adamant that she didn’t want to put the pet carrier up above, she (Catalina) was verbally ‘my dog is in here, no this is my dog.’  The flight attendant in response really just continued to ask her to put it above because it was a hazard where it was, it was a safety emergency, someone could trip.”

Throughout the flight the dog could be heard barking very loudly but Catalina could not check on the dog because she was holding a baby and wasn’t allowed to get up while the plane was flying so the dog stayed up there for the whole three hours of the flight. Soon enough the dog had stopped barking but they didn’t know it was because it died until the plane landed.  When they had opened up the bag and found the dog dead the flight attendant was frazzled and said she wouldn’t have asked them to put it in the overhead bin if she knew.  However, that is clearly not the case according to the family and other witnesses.

United Airlines released a statement saying, “This was a tragic accident that should never have occurred as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin,we assume full responsibility for this tragedy and express our deepest condolences to the family and are committed to supporting, we are thoroughly investigating what occurred to prevent this from ever happening again.”  The family’s tickets were rightfully refunded and the fee that they paid to bring a pet on broad, typically $200; however that will never make up for this tragic loss.