Dog Dies on United Flight After Attendant Forces Passenger to Stow Pet in Overhead Bin

Maggie Gremminger is still heartbroken over what she witnessed on March 12 on United Airlines flight #1284 from Houston, Texas, to New York City’s Laguardia Airport.

The community relations manager tells PEOPLE that a fellow passenger’s dog died on the flight after a flight attendant adamantly instructed the unnamed passenger to store her carrier, with the pet inside, in an overhead storage bin for the duration of the flight. According to Gremminger, 30, the black French bulldog barked from the bin at least 30 minutes into the flight, but was found dead when the owner went to retrieve her dog once the plane had landed.

The tragedy began when the dog owner boarded the plane with a young teenage girl, a baby and the dog in a carrier, which Gremminger says looked like dog carriers that she has seen others use on planes. Gremminger was seated in the row directly behind the party of three and saw the woman place the carrier with the dog inside under the seat in front of her.

Shortly after she was seated, a flight attendant approached the woman with the dog and told her that the bag needed to be moved.

“The flight attendant told the passenger that her bag was blocking part of the aisle. I could not see it, as I was already in my seat, but it sounded like it was somehow not completely fitting beneath the seat in front of her,” Gremminger says of the encounter. “After the flight attendant asked her to move it above, the woman adamantly refused, communicating her dog was in the bag. There was some back and forth before finally the flight attendant convinced her to move the carrier to the bin above.”

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