United Is Changing Its Pet Policy After That Dog Died In An Overhead Bin

Following the mid-flight death of a puppy on Tuesday, United Airlines is putting a new policy in place to prevent such tragedy from happening again. The airline faced intense criticism after a flight attendant reportedly forced a woman to put her French bulldog Kokito into the overhead bin. The puppy suffocated to death during the approximately 3.5-hour journey. In the wake of this incident, United announced its pet policy is changing.

United Airlines provided a statement to Bustle, calling the incident "a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin." The statement also said:

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.

People who bring their pets on board will now be issued brightly colored tags so flight attendants can easily recognize if a bag is carrying an animal. That's because the United flight attendant was reportedly unaware there was a dog in the pet carrier, according to a statement from United. Maggie Gremminger, one of multiple passengers who witnessed the incident, told Buzzfeed, "She said that she did not know there was a dog in the bag and if so she never would have instructed it to be put in the bin above."

After apologizing and reaching out to the family that lost its puppy, United announced the policy change in a public statement:

We have learned that the customer did tell the flight attendant that there was a dog in the carrier. However, our flight attendant did not hear or understand her, and did not knowingly place the dog in the overhead bin. To prevent this from happening again, by April we will issue bright colored bag tags to customers traveling with in-cabin pets.

The event went viral after several passengers claiming to be eye witnesses reported what they saw. Brayan Castano told Buzzfeed his family paid the airline fee to carry Kokito with them in the cabin. But the flight attendant wanted the dog carrier moved from his wife's feet, possibly because it was blocking part of the aisle.

United's policy for traveling with pets on board states, according to the airline's website:

A pet traveling in cabin must be carried in an approved hard-sided or soft-sided kennel. The kennel must fit completely under the seat in front of the customer and remain there at all times. ... A customer traveling with an in-cabin pet cannot be seated in the bulkhead or an emergency exit row.

“My wife repeatedly asked her to let her keep the dog by her feet,” Brayan Castano said to Buzzfeed . “She then asked her if the dog would be OK. The flight attendant wouldn’t let her keep Kokito by her feet and assured her that he would be fine. Witnesses can attest to that."

"There was some back-and-forth before finally the flight attendant convinced her to move the carrier to the bin above," Gremminger also told to Buzzfeed. "The gentleman sitting next to me (in 24B at that time) looked at one another to confirm what we had just seen, both of us acknowledging it was clearly a dog, and feeling stunned that it was placed there." Again, the flight attendant claimed she did not know there was an animal in the carrier. Castano's wife, Catalina, and their daughter reportedly broke into tears at the airport after they discovered their dog had died.

In 2017, more animals died on United planes than on any other carrier's, according to the Department of Transportation. Regardless of the pet policy change, the death of that puppy is sure to raise questions about the risk of transporting animals on planes in the first place.