Re: Dog dying on United
We have spoken to the family, our crew and a number of passengers who were seated nearby. 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, United spokesperson Maggie Schmerin told PEOPLE in a statement. As we stated, we take full responsibility and are deeply sorry for this tragic accident. We remain in contact with the family to express our condolences and offer support.
In response to the tragedy, Schmerin said the airline plans to change its pet travel policy to ensure something like what happened to Robledo and Kokito never occurs again.
To prevent this from happening again, by April we will issue bright colored bag tags to customers traveling with in-cabin pets. This visual tag will further help our flight attendants identify pets in-cabin, Schmerin added in her statement to PEOPLE. |