you know, this world would be a much better place if humans weren't so weird.

a lot of things go through my mind as I peruse the pages of this thread. My Dad was a early WW2 era commercial pilot for National Airlines and he had a old National employee periodical which included a story about a flight with an en-route stop, an aging, matronly passenger, her cat and an irascible old mechanic/engineer-- which turned out to be a volatile mix. As it happened the matronly passenger was traveling with her prized show-quality feline that was unfortunately required by National policy to be carried in the heated, pressurized baggage compartment below, much to her masters distress. The passenger was not about to proceed without protest, and did so unabashedly and constantly, until, at the intermediate stop, the FA begged the aging mechanic/engineer to look in on the feline in the baggage compartment. Being irascible. old and ornery, the engineer wasn't anxious to help, and only did so to get the FA off his back. The anxious owner waited at her seat. The mechanic eventually showed up alongside, took the frozen feline out of a bag, slammed it against the chair rail, and asked "Is this your CAT." Apparently an inadvertent, undiscovered pressure leak had occurred in the compartment below during the previous leg.:sad:

I read it in the employee magazine. There was a crude pencil drawing of the scene.

Not much a surprise, but local news today reports official autopsy showed the dog died of suffocation in the overhead bin. Probably also not a surprise -- United will now ban carriage of 20 breeds of dogs known to have breathing problems, like the French Bulldog involved in this incident.

I struggle to understand why these dogs (with breathing problems) are so popular. And why breeders intentially create the problem.

Of course United shouldn’t have insisted the dog go in the locker. That was stupid. But not as stupid as the dog owner not knowing, or not caring, that taking their pet onto an aircraft wasn’t the smartest thing to do.