To not understand how the hell this happened?! (Distressing content warning)

[CristinaYang]

So basically a family took their ten week old French bulldog puppy on a flight from Houston to NYC. United flight attendant made them put the puppy (in an approved carry case) into the overhead locker. The dog had died by the end of the flight.

Link: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43394952

From the article it seems that this was a grave error by the United employee (who claims she didn’t realise there was a dog in the bag, but yeah, I’m sceptical) and this is not United’s policy.

Clearly, CLEARLY the actions of that employee are deplorable and beneath contempt. Absolutely disgusting.

However, I’m also struggling to understand why the owners complied?! Surely you’d sooner leave the flight than comply with that instruction? Similarly the passengers sitting around the family who witnessed the incident. Why did no one intervene?!

Utterly grim story. That poor family. That poor little girl and that poor little baby.

PussyCat it seems they were mid flight when it happened so the owner couldn’t exactly just leave the plane. You can’t just say she shouldn’t fly, they already where flying.

If they’d taken off, I understand how it happened. You can not argue with airline staff, especially in the US where they take their powers a little too seriously and behave appallingly without any redress. The woman had a newborn, she was probably scared they would use bodily force. As they have done many many time before, mostly without justification.

However, if it was whilst they could still deplane, then they should have just got off. Life of an animal vs plane tickets, it’s not hard. And if she chose to prioritise her tickets and logistics above the safety of that puppy then yes, she’s curable in this too.

However... as the airline have admitted responsibility, I’d say that’s significant. They haven’t admitted any responsibility in the past when their staff have behaved in really awful and shocking ways. Sooo, if even they think they did something wrong, I’m inclined to believe them.

Poor dog. Humans can be shit.

I'm not familiar with US airlines but this seems really shocking. 2 bad incidents in a year?
I’m not from the US or familiar with their airlines but I know there has been way more than 2 bad incidents this year with this particular airline. I can’t believe paying customers are treated in the way they are!

I can’t believe paying customers are treated in the way they are!

You should believe it. Put some people into a cheap polyester uniform and they turn into Hitler.

I remember one flight with US staff when my dd was 4 and they were serving drinks out from a trolley and we were just quietly waiting until it was convenient for them to let us past to get to the toilet. We were very rudely told to go back to our seats as we couldn't get past. I explained dd needed toilet and were told again to just sit down. I pointed out that if my dd couldn't get to the toilet she would wet herself and then there would be wee to clean up. Turned out it was very simple to let her slip past. Some US air staff are great but some really do have power issues!