Last night, on United flight 1284 from Houston (IAH) to New York City (LGA), a dog died after being put in the overhead bin, at the instructions of a flight attendant. The flight attendant instructed a woman to put her TSA APPROVED dog carrier with a live dog in it in an overhead bin. The passenger pushed back, stating that her dog was in the bag. The flight attendant continued to ask the passenger to do it, and she eventually complied. By the end of the flight, the dog was dead. The woman was crying in the airplane aisle on the floor, with her dog.
Immediately after the flight landed, some passengers stayed behind to speak with various United employees. The flight attendant denied knowing it was a dog, but one passenger said he heard the flight attendant respond to the passenger “you need to put your dog up here” – therefore admitting that she knew the dog was in there.
A spokesperson for United said: “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 them. We are thoroughly investigating what occurred to prevent this from ever happening again”.
Like I said earlier, I’m heartbroken, disgusted, and angered for the poor dog, and the family who had to experience this. The flight attendant deserves to be suspended without pay immediately, especially considering that the dog carrier was TSA approved and could have likely fit under the seat.
Please…just don’t. You do realize this isn’t United who did this? Please tell me you’re not gullible enough to think United fully encouraged and even told the FA to do this? Well if you don’t then that means the person FA was the one who did it.
You don’t blame a company for the actions of one person, especially when that one person did not have the backing of that airline.
This is going to turn into a blame the airline not the person who did it game again. Everyone please tell me you don’t actually think United did this. I have no love for them but even I can see how silly that argument is.
This is really sad. I’m extremely angry that my favorite airline would be involved with something like this. That flight attendant needs to be fired immediately. Just horrible. RIP to the dog. :(
Someone seems to lack common sense here that there is a very limited amount of oxygen inside the overhead bin.
You wouldn’t put your child up there would you?
Of course you wouldn’t!! So why on earth did she think that putting a poor dog up there, locked up for hours suffocating would do any good?
This is very sad, very sad indeed :'(
Is it not common sense to keep the poor dog in a space where oxygen is rich? Shame on the flight attendant who did their job extremely poorly. If I were the family I would have sued that woman! R.I.P. that poop dog and my condolences to the family affected by this.🙏😭
This is horrible. Absolutely horrible.
The Flight Attendant should definitely have some sort of punishment. This is why I never want my dog to leave my side when traveling on a plane. I can’t imagine how the woman must have felt when she discovered that her dog was dead.
More bad press for United…
However, this was not United’s fault. Like someone said, a single person should not represent a whole entire company. However, this does bring up the question: is there something wrong with United’s application process?
You can go to jail for animal cruelty. However, this case may not constitute jail time, as it could have been an accident. Still, the FA should be punished in one way or another.