Dog Trip to Ireland: United Airlines Puts Dog on Wrong Flight (VIDEO)
A dog has taken a trip to Ireland by mistake after an airline put him on the wrong flight from a New Jersey airport.
The dog was in fact meant to meet up with his owners in Phoenix, Arizona, but took a much further expedition, crossing the Atlantic Ocean for what turned out to be an early St Patrick's Day excursion.
The six-year-old English Springer Spaniel named Hendrix was supposed to fly out of Liberty Newark International Airport on United Airlines on a flight set for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Arizona. Hendrix was expected to arrive at about 9.45 p.m. Thursday evening, but he never turned up, according to owner Edith Lombardo-Albach of Staten Island, N.Y.
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She has told ABC News: "They marked everything Phoenix, and put the tags on Phoenix."
However, she explained to ABC that just seven minutes before the flight was due to land, she received a phone call from United Airlines explaining that Hendrix would not be landing to meet her.
Lombardo-Albach quickly expected to hear the worst: "Originally, I thought the dog had died and I started screaming."
However, she quickly calmed down when she was informed that it was a simple mix-up and that Hendrix was alive and well but on his way to Shannon, Ireland.
"I almost fainted," she told ABC News. "My husband and my daughter were already at the airport waiting for the dog."
She was reassured by the representative at United Airlines that when Hendrix would land in Ireland he would be cleaned, fed, taken for a long walk, and then put back on the earliest flight back to Newark.
Lombardo-Albach said, "The dog had already gone seven hours to Ireland, and now the dog has a two-hour layover and then a seven-hour flight to Newark. I was insane."
Hendrix met up with Lombardo-Albach at 11 a.m. on Friday when he landed in Newark, and she stayed with him until about 5 p.m. when he again boarded another flight set for Phoenix.
She said, "They boarded him the last possible minute they could. I stayed and watched them physically put the dog on the plane."
Here is a video news report on the incident:
