What happened to PACO???

CNN) -- It's one thing to lose your luggage while flying. It's another when your dog goes missing.
Josiah Allen says his dog, Paco, didn't make it home when he flew recently from Mexico to his home in Seaforth, Canada.
Delta Air Lines says the dog escaped from a carrier on the tarmac.
"I am hopeful that Delta will be able ... to locate and retrieve Paco and that he can come to my home and be loved and cared for," Allen said.
A Delta spokeswoman, Susan Elliot, said Paco broke out of a dog carrier at the airport in Mexico City, Mexico, on May 3.
"Our staff have conducted exhaustive searches to locate the dog," she said.
They have not found Paco.
Delta has offered its "sincere apologies that we have been unable to recover the dog," Elliot said. The airline has compensated Paco's owner and offered to reimburse all expenses associated with the dog, she said.
A Delta representative at the Mexico City airport told Allen that Paco's dog carrier was too small, Allen said. He said Delta asked him to sign a waiver saying the airline would not be liable for any injuries that Paco might suffer as a result of the carrier's size.
Allen said he signed the waiver because Paco had slept in the crate for three nights with no problems.
"He could both turn around and stand comfortably," he said.
Yet when his plane landed in Detroit, Michigan, Allen said, the dog was gone.
The story of Paco's disappearance unfolded not long afterward on a blog called The Consumerist, which says it "empowers consumers by informing and entertaining them about the top consumer issues of the day."
Elliot said she couldn't recall another instance when a dog got lost while its owners were in transit.
"This is extremely rare," she said.

CAN I GET AN ARF?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 29palms

Josiah Allen says his dog, Paco, didn't make it home when he flew recently from Mexico to his home in Seaforth, Canada.

---

For a second there I thought this was a story about a flying dog...how disappointing. :lol:

ARF!

PACO. Not UNDERDOG.

I'm surprised DL allowed that... there are IATA live animal regulations and part of that is minimum cage size and composition

We had an extremely similar incident happen when I was at OH. We always held live animals inside until just before departure, rather than sitting them on the ramp for the whole turn. As the aircraft was about to depart one morning, one of our ramp agents came out with a cat in a small kennel. When she was just a few feet from the aircraft, the bottom tray of the kennel seperated from the rest, and fell to the ground along with the cat. Cats like to be around the APU of a CRJ just as much as I like to, and this cat darted off across the ramp and was never heard from again. I'm not certain how the situation was resolved with the customer.

I've had one instance where ATL killed a shipment of live animals. Luckily it was a shipment of live crabs to be eaten, so I'm pretty certain the value of the goods was paid to the consignee and everyone got on with their day. O yea, after ATL left the crabs out in the sun to die, they were smart enough to load them onto the aircraft. When the aircraft arrived, you could smell the crabs in every inch of the cabin, including the cockpit. Every bag in the pit was ruined. I went through a couple cans of lav spray, and had to delay the departure for an hour while the aircraft aired out.



I had one other instance where a passenger and their dog were travelling together, and due to a flight cancellation were seperated. This was a Sunday in the middle of summer, I was the shift supervisor. They originated in HNL, and when their flight out of ATL cxld, the pax was rebooked via MSP. Meanwhile, the dog sat out on the ramp in ATL with no water for about 10 hours before he was finally loaded onto an ASA CRJ. When the dog arrived, he was in terrible shape. I immediately called the airport paramedics and my station manager. We gave the dog a little water, but he wouldn't drink. We put some cool water on his belly and his legs until my station manager arrived and took the dog to the vet. As soon as he left I called the pax(who was sitting in MSP) and informed him of the situation and allowed him to vent about his whole experience with DL. Then I spoke with OH and EV OCC about the situation. Eventually I sat down and ate my cold dinner. When the pax arrived a few hours later I greeted him on the jetbridge with all the vet info and every customer service phone number/email I could come up with as well as my name and email. At this point he was alot less angry, and was very appreciative of the actions we had taken. He then went right to the vet where my station manager was still with the dog.

The dog had gotten severe heatstroke/dehydration. The dog was given IV fluids and stayed at the vets a couple more nights. The vet told us the dog had about 20-30 mins left when we got him off the airplane. The last I had heard was the dog ended up being fine, I just don't know about any lasting effects of this. I'm not completely certain how this was handled between DL and the pax. I know there was a big debate over whether DL, NW, EV, or OH should pay the bill.

I hope to never see a similar situation. It was rediculous and should never have happened and should never happen again. It doesn't even take someone caring about their job, it just takes someone caring. To have all those employees in ATL see this situation developing, and just ignore it is rediculous. If I ever saw an unattended animal at work, whether it be DLs or any other carriers, I always checked on it and found someone to attend to it. And that was never me protecting my job, that was me being a Human Being. If you can't tell, I was very disgusted by this situation, and really I still am today.

I think due to safety reasons pets should not be transported on airplanes. There is just too much that can happen with cancellations and diversions all the the time. People should just choosr to drive when a pet is involved unless of course its over the water. And agents should definatly be more aware of pets that do travel such as thier kennels and how they are acting in the kennell. A pet that is really scared will probably not travel well. NW was transporting a traine army dog one night and that dog went bullistic every time time someone approched the kennell. How the kennel did not come apart I don't know but the ramp crew were scared to death to get near the kennel. Animals like that should be sedated or travel another way.

We had a dog get loose on the LAS ramp one night.
It was a CO MD-80 to IAH and the last flight of the night, leaving at 2am.
The CO Manager made the decision to hold the flight until the dog was found, which was about an hour later.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ColoAvs19

I've had one instance where ATL killed a shipment of live animals. Luckily it was a shipment of live crabs to be eaten, so I'm pretty certain the value of the goods was paid to the consignee and everyone got on with their day. O yea, after ATL left the crabs out in the sun to die, they were smart enough to load them onto the aircraft. When the aircraft arrived, you could smell the crabs in every inch of the cabin, including the cockpit. Every bag in the pit was ruined. I went through a couple cans of lav spray, and had to delay the departure for an hour while the aircraft aired out.

---

Was this a Delta 767 in about 2001? If so, it was nasty. We ended up replacing all the lower lobe insulation in the (IIRC) fwd bag bin.

No, this was on an ASA CRJ about a year ago. It was maybe 30 lbs. This was literally, without question or exageration, the WORST thing I have ever smelled in my life. I could not imagine the smell if a whole pallet on a 767 arrived like this.

This was a couple coolers full of mixed seafood. We even found some clams below the floor from where one of them broke open. I still remember the smell 9 years later.

I think I read somewhere about Alaska's 737 combis going in for C check and finding old fish and stuff in the rollers.

I really wish the 767 had floors in the pits like the DC10. Stuff falls through the rollers and you can't bulk load a 767. It's not always possible to remove the cans from the pit, and it's a big pain to load through LD8s already in the pit. I know of some carriers that use LD2s and play the Rubix Cube to be able to load the cans(as they only have a curtain on one side. Makes me appreciate using LD8s with curtains on both sides)

You can't beat just good old fashioned bulk loading!! I love my DC10s

Haha we have an embargo on one of our acft, can't remember which, but the aircraft air goes thru one of the holds so we can only do crabs in one not the other.

Speaking of ruining bags, that's interesting. When I was in MEL, DJ was bringing us boxes of crabs from HBA every morning to connect on us to HKG - all bulk holdable. Maybe they load bags in one hold crabs in the other? On an aside, from watching tiger i've noticed they only use one hold for baggage and the other remains empty on their A320s.

I recall a story from many a year back too where we did a Durian freighter charter. The whole plane was filled (around 100t) and the crew eventually had to don oxy masks and land due to the smell. Now we have to mention Durian on the NOTOC (other special load)

Having eaten durian (well, I got it into my mouth and it promptly exited prior to chewing) I can see it needs "special" attention.
That is one nasty smell. I can recall a scent of fetid onions and vinegar, with some toe funk added, a splash of cheap tequila with the texture of gelatinous pig fat. Our driver was so happy to take one home to his wife, but we had to take it out of the car when we stopped for sightseeing.
My husband ate a bite and kept it down.
Nick--how do they deal with that stuff?
PS-- I think I'd trade rotten crabs for durian (but then , I didn't smell those...)

I'm still yet to see, smell or taste one :(

Gotta say I’ve never heard of durian. And from M767’s description,
[QUOTE=mrs767er;57239]That is one nasty smell. I can recall a scent of fetid onions and vinegar, with some toe funk added, a splash of cheap tequila with the texture of gelatinous pig fat. /QUOTE]
http://bestsmileys.com/fainting/1.gif think I’m going to skip it.
But I have to ask, where do they sell this stuff? I’m thinking durian isn’t something you’d find on a restaurant menu and I can’t image they could sell this in a market, the smell would waft over to the oranges in the next bin. :lol:

And M767, you mentioned the scent of "cheap tequila", familiar with that smell are you? :lol: :lol:

Mig it's some sort of fruit that's big in Asia.. it's considered "the king of fruits"

C/O Wikipedia - "Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia."

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nick

it's considered "the king of fruits" ]

---

I thought the pineapple was the king of fruits. Somebody is in for a rude awakening. *wink*

let's add this little tidbit: Andrew Zimmern, the TV guy who will eat nearly anything, can NOT eat durian
they ahve nets under the trees to prevent the fruit from killing people--it's very spiky as well as stinky.
It is illegal to take it on public transport in Bali. That says "something" and they don't even have cheap tequila there...
not too difficult to imagine THAT smell, added to fetid onions and vinegar.
if you like durian, great, if not, we're talking immediate projectile--I doubt there is a middle ground