On August 18, 2023, Paula Rodriguez was traveling with her dog, Maia, with a layover in Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport where she was being transported (to the plane) on the runway, and staff had opened her kennel, and she had escaped into the middle of the runway.
Ever since Maia went missing, animal lover Robin Allgood, an Atlanta resident who works to find lost dogs has put up flyers around the airport for Maia.
More than three weeks later, on Saturday, September 9th, a FedEx employee recognized Maia from the flyers and informed Robin about the discovery. Maia was found near the airport's North Cargo facilities under a rack used to move big cargo containers around the airport. After a wildlife biologist failed to catch Maia with a net, Robin Allgood was able to grab her while scooting on her back under the rack.
Delta is currently working on reuniting Paula and Maia!
Here are full articles from The Independent and CNN Travel.
Map of all airports that have reported an air travel, pet related incident.
The inspiration for PetFlight.