Airliner Makes Unscheduled Stop to Save the Life of a Dog in Cargo

Airliners make unscheduled landings almost every day for sick passengers. But a United Airlines cross-country flight was diverted to Denver for a freezing dog.

The flight, United 231 out of Dulles International Airport in suburban Virginia, was about halfway into its four-hour, 45-minute trip to San Jose on Saturday when an alert United employee discovered that a baggage handler had goofed. A dog had been mistakenly loaded into the chilly forward cargo hold of the Airbus A320 rather than the rear hold, which is properly heated.

If the dog wasn’t dead yet, it could well be soon.

The pilot and his dispatcher made a quick decision. The plane should land as soon as possible, and Denver was the best alternative.

But first they had to tell the owner.

Flight attendants were dispatched to get the unwitting owner, Mike Bell, a quality assurance manager for Network Associates in Santa Clara, Calif., who had been visiting his parents, Don and Anna Bell, in Bethesda, Md.

But they hesitated when they got to his seat: Bell’s laptop was open on the tray table, and the screen saver was a large photo of Dakota, the dog in question, a 10-year-old Basenji. Bell had raised him from a pup.

The attendants told Bell, 38, that the pilot wanted to see him, and escorted him to the front of the plane. The captain stepped out of the cockpit.

“He indicated he was not sure if my dog had survived to this point,” Bell said in a phone interview Monday. “However, he was hopeful. If he was alive, the dog would not make it to San Jose under these conditions. So in the best interest of the dog, he was going to divert the plane and land in Denver.”

The captain flipped on the public address system and the 90 passengers learned of Dakota’s plight. “For the sake of the animal,” the captain told them, “we’re diverting to Denver to check on his condition.”

According to Bell, no one complained.

“Everyone seemed to understand the reason for the stop,” Bell said. “For the next 45 to 60 minutes, I sat agonizing over the fate of my dog.”

Bell said the flight attendants made every effort to reassure him. After the plane landed, it taxied to a gate where a ground crew was standing by to grab the dog’s crate from the hold.

The captain quickly came out of the cockpit to say the ground crew gave a thumbs-up. The 40-pound dog was alive. Bell and the captain then went down to see Dakota.

“He was indeed alive, but very cold from the unheated cargo hold,” Bell said.

Bell said he took Dakota from the crate and held him while the ground crew took turns petting him. He asked if he could carry the dog aboard. The Denver supervisor said it was against the rules, but the captain prevailed on the supervisor to make an exception under the circumstances.

As passengers cheered, Bell triumphantly carried the dog the length of the airplane to his seat in the rear. During the flight to San Jose, parents brought children back to pet him. It took Dakota about 20 minutes to calm down, but then, “he slept on the seat next to me for the rest of the way home with a couple of blankets to get him warned up,” Bell said.

Bell said Dakota is an African “barkless” hunting dog. The Basenji, which means “bush dog” in Swahili, was bred to flush lions from the bush. The American Kennel Club describes the Basenji as “elegant and graceful, the whole demeanor is one of poise and inquiring alertness.” The AKC said the dog “should not bark, but is not mute.”

Bell, in a phone interview from California, said Dakota seems to have survived nicely and “is in good spirits.”

Traveling pets have been a controversial issue lately. Reacting to pets left freezing or sweltering on luggage carts or otherwise mistreated by airlines, Congress in April passed legislation requiring better training of airline personnel who handle pets. Congress also decided that statistics on pet deaths and incidents will be made public airline by airline.

Partly as a result, many airlines have decided not to handle pets as baggage over the summer, when most incidents occur. Some airlines, including American, had already restricted pets during the summer, and Delta banned pets when the temperature was above 85. Most airlines will handle pets as cargo, where there are generally better quality controls.

In general, airlines allow seeing-eye dogs and small pets in containers to be carried aboard planes. Airlines have differing policies for carrying dogs as baggage. Southwest, for example, won’t transport pets. America West allows only small pets in containers in the passenger cabin.

In Dakota’s case, said Joe Hopkins, a spokesman for United, most likely someone in the baggage section at Dulles was reviewing paperwork and saw that a baggage handler had made a mistake. Someone at Dulles called the United Operations Center in suburban Chicago, which then contacted the pilot.

Informed that the dog was allowed in the passenger cabin, Hopkins responded: “I suppose you’re going to ask me if he gets frequent-flier miles, right?”

Bell expressed gratitude to the captain and the rest of the crew, and to fellow passengers for not complaining. But they were rewarded for their patience.

The flight attendants offered free drinks to everyone and then showed a second movie: “My Dog Skip.”