Another Dog Dies In Cargo Hold Of Plane During Flight To LA

LOS ANGELES, CA — A dog died on an Air France-KLM flight from Amsterdam to Los Angeles Tuesday, the latest in a troubling series of inflight animal deaths.

The large dog resembling a husky was found lifeless in the cargo hold of KLM Flight 601 when it landed in Los Angeles at 12:35 a.m. after an 11-hour flight. According to TMZ, which first broke the story, an Air France employee claimed the dog was incorrectly loaded in the cargo hold and lost oxygen during the transatlantic flight.

However, the airline disputed the claim in a statement Wednesday.

"The dog's owner has been notified, and we express our condolences. In cooperation with the local health authority in the US, the CDC, the dog was initially examined to ensure there was no immediately obvious public health threat. The dog was loaded correctly according to KLM's pet policy."

Airline officials said they will await a necropsy to determine the cause of the dog's death.

According to the Daily Mail, the airline’s policy requires all cats and dogs weighing between 17 and 165 pounds to travel in the cargo hold confined to hard-plastic or fiberglass containers.

The incident prompted calls from PETA to end the practice of putting dogs in cargo holds.

"Tragedies like this one are exactly why airlines must require that animals travel in the main cabin only," PETA officials said in statement to TMZ. "PETA urges Air France-KLM to join airlines such as JetBlue and Southwest in prohibiting companion animals from being flown in the cargo hold, where they endure noise, extreme temperatures and sometimes inadequate pressurization, before yet another sensitive animal suffers and dies, terrified and alone."

The pup’s owner was reportedly devastated. It’s the latest sad tale of an airline pet death to garner headlines in recent months. In June, an 8-year-old Pomeranian died during a layover on a Delta flight from Phoenix to Newark. The little pup was also being held in a cargo-hold cage, and it was discovered with vomit and fluids in the cage, CNN reported. Its owners filed a lawsuit against the airline.

Last March, a french bulldog puppy died in the overhead container of a United Airlines flight after an airline attendant reportedly placed the dog in an overhead luggage bin without realizing there was an animal in the container. The incident stirred national outrage, and prompted a bill to make it illegal to put animals in overhead containers.