At a time when travelling with pets is becoming more expensive, pet owners in the USA were aghast to discover that an Alaska Airlines plane ferrying animals in the hold arrived at an airport hub with a cargo door partially open, The Independent newspaper reported.
It was only after the Boeing 737 landed in Portland, Oregon, having taken off from Los Cabos, Mexico, that the slightly open door was noticed by many. While it is not clear how long the door remained open, none of the pets suffered any harm.
The flight crew said there was no indication during the journey that a cargo door was not properly locked, suggesting that it may have got unlocked on landing. Alaska Airlines issued a statement to say, “Upon landing at PDX on March 1, Alaska Airlines Flight 1437 was discovered to have the forward cargo door unsealed. There was no indication to the crew that the door was unsealed during flight and all indications point to the door partially opening after landing. Our maintenance teams inspected the aircraft, replaced a spring in the door, tested the door, and reentered it into service.”
This, of course, was not the first safety mishap on Alaska Airlines recently. The airline was in the news when a door plug blew out midway through a flight on January 5. The flight had to make an emergency landing, coincidentally, in Portland. Amanda Strickland and her boyfriend Kyle Rinker, who were travelling to Ontario, California, have, along with a third passenger, sued the airline and Boeing for $1 billion for the “traumatising” experience. Strickland told the British tabloid Mirror, “I don’t think there has been a day that’s gone by that we haven’t thought about it.”
Humans at least can raise an alarm when something goes wrong. What about our beloved furry companions?
