Airline: Delta
Incident Date: Feb 08, 2012
Report Date: April 2012
Incident Type: Death
Animal: Chinchilla
Brachycephalic: No Definition
Animal Age: Not reported
Flight Number:
Originating Airport: ANC (Ted Stevens Anchorage Intl)
Destination Airport: MSP (Minneapolis-Saint Paul International)
Reporting Airport: ANC (Ted Stevens Anchorage Intl)
Report:
Carrier: Delta Air Lines
Flight Number: 1084
Date and Time of Incident February 8, 2012, 3:00 PM
Type of Incident: Death
Description of Animal Chinchillas
Description of Incident: Two pet chinchillas were arrived unresponsive in Minneapolis and were determined to have died during the flight from Anchorage.
Cause of Incident: The pets were staged for loading late in the boarding process to provide protection from winter weather. They were mistakenly loaded in the baggage bin with a shipment containing a small amount of dry ice. Necropsies were performed but did not identify a cause of death only that the animals were subject to some sort of cardio-vascular insufficiency. The carbon dioxide from the dry ice could be a plausible explanation for the cardio-vascular insufficiency and may have caused or contributed to the deaths. Other causes may have been the chinchilla’s heat sensitivity in addition to normal stress related to transportation although the aircraft bin ventilation system was checked and the animals were not exposed to high temperatures during flight.
Corrective Action Taken:
All Load Supervisors at the originating station were counseled on this incident over and above their annual training covering the system wide ban against loading live animals with shipments containing any amounts of dry ice. New local procedures have been instituted at the origin station to include a review by the Operations Office to verify shipments with dry ice are not comingled with live animals before approving the dispatch of the aircraft.
PetFlight Report:
April 2012 Airline Pet Travel Report
Original Report
Map of all airports that have reported an air travel, pet related incident.
The inspiration for PetFlight.