United Airlines has issued an apology as well as a $75 credit to passengers who witnessed this tragic incident. A family flew on United Airlines on Monday and today they are now mourning the loss of their dog after being told by the flight attendant to place the dog carrier in an overhead bin.
According to the family the flight attendant insisted they put their 10-month old French Bulldog in the overhead bin despite the family having followed all of the rules about flying with a pet in an airliner's cabin and using a TSA approved pet carrier.
The dog was traveling with a woman who also had a young baby and her older daughter. Although other passengers said that they heard barking during the trip, the dog owners realized the dog had died after retrieving the pet carrier from the overhead bin after the more than 3-hour trip. United agreed that this situation shouldn't have happened and issued this statement:
"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."
Fellow passengers were upset and stunned themselves and took to Twitter
Maggie Gremminger has taken it upon herself to contact multiple news outlets, from NBC, and CBS to People Magazine and Fox News.
This is the latest black eye for United, which has recently endured a string of public relations nightmares with passengers being dragged off of flights, another dog in a case that died after a domestic flight one year ago after it had flown in the plane's hold compartment and was under the care of United's PetSafe program.
United says it's policies allow for dogs, cats and even some types of birds (with the exception of cockatoos) are allowed to travel in the planes' cabins. If the passenger brings a pet carry on in addition to a carry-on bag they are subject to $125 fee.
Meanwhile Gremminger takes to Twitter in an attempt at getting justice for the family who lost their 10-month old puppy.
"My hope was to gain some media attention so that we can collectively raise our awareness about pet safety + travel."
and went on to thank those who helped her spread and amplify the story in hopes to prevent similar tragedies from happening.