Report Details

Carrier: American Airlines

Flight Number: 1115

Date & Time of Incident: 05/19/2018 12:00 AM

Type of Incident: Death

Description of Animal: Breed: Labrador Retriever

Animal Name: Higgins

Description of Incident: Flight 1115/19 DFW-ONT arrived in ONT at 1009. When offload was completed Crew Chief informed me one of the 3 animals that were offload was unresponsive with evidence of possibly being deceased. After speaking with the customer he told me that on his arrival in DFW the crew chief contacted the gate agent and informed they that the pet was having difficulty breathing, as if it were hyperventilating. The crew chief went up to the gate and escorted Mr. McMurray down to the ramp to view the condition of his pet. Mr. McMurray gave the pet water and otherwise comforted the pet and allowed the crew chief to load the pet on the aircraft. This was confirmed after speaking with the ramp manager in DFW. Whether the pet should have been loaded despite what Mr. McMurray stated may be a contributing factor. Mr. McMurray’s PNR was not updated to reflect that this had occurred. Only by my discussion with him was this discovered. The PNR does reflect the correct SSR and DRH for both flights show live animals in the bin. Mr. McMurray also stated to me that he was obviously distraught about his pet passing but was not completely surprised that the pet passed because of the pet’s age (14 years old). He did state that the pet has traveled numerous times without any issues so he didn’t feel any additional measures were necessary for the pet to travel on this occasion.

Cause of Incident: Our investigation has not discovered any other contributing factors at this time.

Corrective Action Taken: N/A