United Airlines is investigating after mistakenly flying a family’s dog to Japan – just a day after a puppy died on a flight after being stored in an overhead bin.
Kara Swindle and her two children flew from Oregon to Kansas City in Missouri on Tuesday night, according to US reports.
But when they went to a cargo facility to pick up Irgo, a 10-year-old German Shepherd, they were instead given a Great Dane.
Ms Swindle discovered the dog had been put on a flight to Japan, where the Great Dane was supposed to go.
Airline officials in Japan put Irgo on a flight back to Kansas City. It was not clear when he would arrive home.
Ms Swindle told news site KCTV that the dog had never been on a flight before and she was worried he would not survive.
She said what was supposed to be an hour long journey had become 16 hours, with the return flight still to come.
She said: "I don’t know if he’s going to be able to sustain this flight because he is a 10-year-old dog and he’s never been on a flight before.
"I honestly don’t know if he’s going to survive this flight."
United Airlines said in a statement to KCTV5 News: "An error occurred during connections in Denver for two pets sent to the wrong destinations. We have notified our customers that their pets have arrived safely and will arrange to return the pets to them as soon as possible.
“We apologise for this mistake and are following up with the vendor kennel where they were kept overnight to understand what happened."
It comes after a family’s beloved French Bulldog died after a United Airlines flight attendant insisted on storing him an overhead compartment.
The airline apologised over the death of Kokito and accepted "full responsibility" for the incident.
Fellow passenger Maggie Gremminger wrote on Twitter: “I assumed there must be ventilation as surely the flight attendant wouldn’t have instructed this otherwise.”
She added: “I heard the dog barking a little and we didn’t know it was barking a cry of help. I am so heartbroken.”
