In what can only be described as a nightmare fiasco, a dog had a messy accident onboard a Delta Air Lines flight…then got loose.
Loose Dog Gets Loose – Dog Accident On Delta Air Lines Flight Was The Ultimate Nightmare
While emotional support animals can no longer roam free onboard flights, in-cabin dogs are still permitted…provided they are kept in a carrier (an exception is made for service animals). Key words: kept in a carrier.
On a recent Delta flight to Miami, the dog’s owner decided to pull out the bulldog from its carrier and place it on the lap of a seatmate. Why? The seatmate thought the dog was cute and asked to hold it.
But when the dog was placed on her lap…it exploded with diahrea.
In the excitement, the dog escaped. Covered in feces, it ran down the aisle of the aircraft, forcing passengers to quickly pull up their legs to avoid being splattered.
Mike Solona’s boyfriend was on the flight and from him, the drama unfolded on Twitter:
my bf is on a plane to miami right now and a bulldog in the row next to him just had diarrhea. everyone freaked out, the dog owner began sobbing, and the dog escaped. now, covered in poo, it is running around the plane. people are lifting up their legs and screaming.
— Mike Solana (@micsolana) September 12, 2022
correction, the dog (window) was actually next to bf (middle). bf’s bookbag now covered in poo lmao (sorry). journey began when the girl next to bf (aisle) thought dog was cute and wanted to hold him on her lap, at which point he exploded.
— Mike Solana (@micsolana) September 12, 2022
The dog was re-captured, biohazard kit opened, and the feces-covered seats covered in blankets. Passengers splattered by the dog were offered $75 Delta vouchers and glasses of wine.
One first class passenger became upset that her dinner may have been tainted by feces particles and ordered that it be taken away.
The plane landed in Miami without further incident.
further developments, flight attendant offering wine to most afflicted up front, biohazard kit has been taken out (!!!), seats covered in blankets, and a woman in first class is upset her dinner tray has not yet been taken away
— Mike Solana (@micsolana) September 12, 2022
in the end, seats were lysol’d and scrubbed, 75 dollars in airline points were rewarded to direct hits, the lights were dimmed, and a very tired and ashamed lil pup watched tv for the rest of the trip. the plane safely landed. my bf is now home (he swears he can still smell poop)
— Mike Solana (@micsolana) September 12, 2022
I’d say $75 is rather miserly…
CONCLUSION
This incident is horrific and a vital reminder that if you insist on taking your dog onboard, it needs to stay in a carrier. For me, this is another great reminder of why we don’t have pets at my house…
Keep your dogs at home!! I have zero sympathy for the passenger that asked to hold the dog. She got what she asked for.
This is hilarious.
My thoughts exactly. What a shit show. Literally.
I would be very angry if it happened to me but the tweets made me laugh out loud.
Just stay double masked and make sure you’ve had all your jabs. STAY SAFE!!!!!
Huh? This is a story about a dog getting loose and having diarrhea all over the plane— not covid.
Did Delta fine the dog owner for taking the pet outside the carrier?
Had a similar incident back in January 2020 just before COVID shut things down and there was a crackdown on “emotional support animals.” Flying STT to EWR in first on a UA 752, a couple brought their medium-large dog into first, sitting in the right side bulkhead seats with the pooch on the floor in front of them. About mid-way through the flight, the dog had explosive diarrhea. Luckily it was confined to the area where the couple were seated, but the cabin really reeked. While the poor F/A’s did their best to clean up and deodorize, the couple with the dog seemed disconnected and appeared to do little to assist. I really felt sorry for the F/As and the pooch. Having had several dogs (which never flew) I can attest that stress can cause this to happen. Keep your dogs at home. I never faulted United, but those of us in first ended up getting IIRC something like $200 travel vouchers.
It’s not just dogs that can have this issue up in the air. Stuart, remember those two spicy bowls of rintek wu’uk rica-rica you ate right before our flight home from Bali?
@Joe Chivas: ROFL!!! I imagine if @Matthew has any interesting story to share about his addiction to Mexican food as well.
I do. But I’ll save that for another time! 😉
I remember that Taco Bell “Make a run for the border” advertising campaign in the ’90s was way too easy to make fun of!
@Santastico I think Matthew is safe because he eats Taco Bell after his flights, not before. The funniest part of the whole story in the first class passenger worried there is poo in their dinner!
@Scott: I drove by a Taco Bell this morning and there was a line at their drive-thru at 7am. I cannot imagine what good can come out of that decision.
Their breakfast is actually pretty good.
I have always had dogs. It is a great responsibility in so many ways, and much like humans not all travel well. So when I read such flagrant irresponsibly toward their pet and the rules I am incensed. IMO air travel for pets is an unsafe practice only to be used as a last resort. Breaking the rules should result in large fines & covering all damage costs. Such persons do not deserve a pet.
And that $75 bucks ain’t gonna cover it for the others.
It is stressful for humans to fly and over the top stressful for pets of any kind. They are meant to stay on the ground.Not sure for so many need their dogs as it adds stress to the humans??? too Alos why do they need to go to the grocery store and to target sometimes more than one dog.. NUTS It is animal abuse.
Sometimes my girlfriend is out of town, and so she doesn’t fly with the dog, I take care of it. I have a few mins in the morning, and a few in the evening, to take the dog out of the house. if I’m going to the grocery store, the dog is coming with me. What is it to you if my dog follows me around the grocery store instead of staying home doing nothing?
If you had a dog, you would understand.
“Emotional Support” my ass – animals have no business being allowed onboard an airplane. Just how in the hell is an animal in a carrier supposed to be any kind of “emotional support” ?- I feel sorry for the pet that you ignorant cry babies subject to having to be caged for hours just so you can claim they are “emotional” support.
Commercial airlines are not pet kennels. If you are so unhinged you need a dog in order to survive a flight, then take a bus, train or car instead.
I had a seatmate on a Calgary-DFW regional aircraft that had THREE support animals. I barely had room for my legs during the 4 hour flight. Thankfully they didn’t p!ss or sh!t everywhere.
Serious question – how are animals on planes even a thing when lots of people have significant allergies to them? Southwest had to get rid of peanuts, but animals shedding hair all over the place is no big deal?
It’s a fair question!
I have allergies to pet dander, confirmed via skin sensitization tests. Cats are worst but also some dogs. Itchy eyes, etc. Obviously it is nothing life threatening but certainly uncomfortable.
Since those cleaning supplies were available to the flight attendants, why not use them every 2 hours to clean the toilets?
Just came off a flight from JFK to Heathrow 9/13 and someone boarded with a Boston Terrier in her arms. NO carrier! Since I’ve traveled with a cat that was in a carrier (not internationally) a few times in the US I thought it was really odd anyone could bring a dog to a foreign country (or maybe she was returning to her native country – never asked) I was shocked she could even board with a dog in her arms!! But I saw her with my own eyes! And this was just yesterday not months or years ago!!
@Hashi, in order to bring a dog into the United Kingdom, there’s certain paperwork you need to fill out. There’s an EU form that has to be signed by the USDA and sent ahead to the Heathrow Animal Reception Centre. They give the go ahead and you wouldn’t be allowed to board the plane unless you had their approval. There’s also a worm treatment that has to be done within 5 days of departure and the dogs rabies shot has to be after they’ve been chipped. I know because I went through it 2 years ago to bring our dog here in the UK.
I’m assuming you just didn’t walk on that plane with your pet without a carrier! That dog had no carrier and certainly should have been in one, period. There’s NO getting around the carrier issue. No one followed her with a carrier….
This isn’t a true story. You can’t fly into London with a pet in the cabin. There’s a zero tolerance policy for that.
Not true. Service animals are always allowed.
I definitely agree this is not a good story for the pax on the plane, but to say it’s a good reason to not have pets is like saying a story about a sick or misbehaving child is a reason to not have kids. Well, now that I think about it… 😉
No one is advocating not having pets. They just don’t belong on an already crowded aircraft.
I agree there is a lot of abuse of the rules that allow legitimate service animals on planes, but Matthew said this story is a reminder of why he doesn’t have pets, as if this story is supporting evidence that pets are bad.
I grew up in a household with out pets, and was fine with it, not knowing what I was missing. I was only introduced to life with a dog once I met my partner. Now I know how enriching it would have been to have grown up with a pet.
Pets aren’t for everyone, but to say a sick dog is a reason to not have pets is like saying a sick child is a reason not to have children.
Thank you for pointing out Matthew’s illogical “reasoning” to justify a no-pets household. I also don’t like to point it out, but his post sounds downright cold-hearted. I’m as put off by his comment as I am by the story about the irresponsible dog 0wner on the Delta flight.
Apart from service dogs, all animals belong in the hold.
I would even make the argument that service dogs belong in the hold as well. There’s not much “servicing” a dog can do once the passenger is on board and seated. If they need help finding the lavatory, they can call a flight attendant over to aid them, akin to how FAs help out unaccompanied minors. Once the plane has landed, the owner and dog can be reunited in the jetbridge.
sometimes we travel with our dog because we don’t want to leave him with strangers. I used to say oh boohoo dog in the hold is not a big deal. After the number of reports I’ve read of dogs lost, injured, or worse in the cargo hold, I’m not taking even a 1% chance of something happening. I don’t see any issue with a dog in the cabin.
If one kid shits in the cabin, should all kids go in the cargo hold too? lol
Yes.
I wish I could have licked the dog’s leather cheerio, just like Marla
Dogs and other animals, with exception of verified service dogs, should be ban in all commercial flight passenger cabins. This includes no animals in containers in passenger cabins! The Delta incident is both outrageous and totally preventable! An example of one passenger and a dog causing major havoc! Keep dogs and other animals at home or place in the aircraft cargo hold!
I have no problem with a dog flying
If they pay full fare for the ticket. That means full fare Y, O, J, or F
Well that seatmate got what they richly deserve LOL!
And the dogs owner should be fined for every dollar spent cleaning that plane and the victims cleaning bills and the emotional distress I suffered reading this example of how stupid dog owners are and banned for life for being stupid. Clearly such stupid people cannot be allowed to board tiny metal tubes filled with people expecting a shit show experience.
Show me the money!
Animals and children do not belong on an airplane.
If you can’t control your bowels, GTFO!
Full stop, end of story…..
I know someone who should know better , but they scam the system. They downloaded a fake service dog tag etc and regularly takes her vizsla on flights between LA and NYC in 1st class. The arrogance of doing this is disappointing.
I understand that two nations have seen fit to ban ownership of dogs: Iran and North Korea.
To everyone who says dogs only belong in the hold, shame on you. To some people, they treat them as their children and don’t want to leave them behind. Your life doesn’t have to stay in one place just because you choose to have a pet. Regardless if you think people are scamming the system to get an ESA or service dogs onto the plane, not all disabilities are visible. No matter how well a dog is trained, it’s still a dog at the end of the day and might have an accident on occasion. It’s unfortunate the timing in this case. If you don’t want to be on a plane with a dog owner who’s decided to travel with their dog instead of leaving it at home, there’s a simple solution. Pick a different flight.
No. This is not a simple solution. There are no dog-excluding flights for people to pick from. If there were I would choose them, not to avoid the dogs, but to avoid the irresponsible dog owners, of which there are just too many.
Did the dog owner in this case compensate those on the flight and the airline for the actions of the dog? Not that we know of, and if we found out that the owner did voluntarily compensate, I’ll bet most of us would be shocked to hear it. Shocked, because our inherent expectation is that a dog owner will not take responsibility for the dog’s actions.
I have both human children and a dog, and I hear from people all the time that they treat their dogs like children. The vast majority of the time this is nonsense. Either that, or they don’t believe in treating children properly. How many of these dog owners have written their dog into their will and established a trust and conservator to take care of their dog in the event of the owner’s demise? Very few, but that’s what exactly what one should do with a child who has the intellectual ability of a dog.
The reason so many people view service animals as BS is that we’ve slid so far down the slippery slope that now we’re at a point where “I want my dog with me” is indistinguishable from a disability, and in order to have the dog with you all you need to do is state “It’s a service animal.” There is no formal certification required of the dog, no training requirement, and no requirement for the demonstration of skill beyond being present. Enough of us are old enough to remember a time before this charade existed, and we can see that for the most part this is just a mechanism for people to bring their non-skilled pets into places where they should be excluded.
Yes, the comfort animal thing that crosses into abuse is a (pet) peeve of mine. Legitimate service animals and their owners suffer because of it. Worse than the stigma is when a comfort animal (or more likely a regular old pet that someone can’t live an hour without) is not well behaved and causes trouble with a service animal when they’re in the same space.
Pick a different flight? Sure, the minute the airline tells me “there’s a dog on this flight” at booking…. I’m being facetious of course, but my point is yes, we all need to be tolerant (and well-behaved pets help that a lot), but there comes a line where people need to take priority over pets, especially when pets may be transported separately (not in the cabin) or left at home/with a sitter for temporary travel.
It’s not about people yielding to the pet owner, it’s about the pet owner accepting and abiding by the responsibility that comes with owning a pet.
Why is it Delta’s responsibility to compensate the passengers? Without getting into the debate about allowing pets on planes, this wasn’t Delta’s fault. Is the passenger charged back for this compensation?
My hairdresser just informed me he paid $99 for a document online saying his new 8 week old puppies are “mental support animals”. Lame.