Taking your furry best friend on a flight can be pretty nerve-wracking, but many times travellers are left with no other choice.
If your dog isn't a registered emotional support or service dog, the only way they're flying is in a crate in the plane's underbelly cargo area. Between the loud noises and the chance of turbulence, this can get pretty scary for a pup, so it's good to know that some pilots and flight crew members are always looking out for pet passengers.
A tiny Boston terrier named Simba is alive today after his pilot on an Air Canada flight from Tel Aviv to Toronto diverted the plane all the way to Frankfurt, Germany to save his life. When the heating system malfunctioned in the plane’s cargo area, the captain worried the tiny dog would freeze to death when traveling over the frigid Atlantic Ocean and didn't question turning the jumbo jet around.
There, Simba and the rest of the passengers hopped aboard another aircraft to Toronto, where German Kontorovich, the 7-year-old dog's owner, told CityNews he was so grateful to be reunited with his best friend. "It's my dog, it's like my child. It's everything to me," he says in the following video.
In the future, pets can travel in style from JFK airport in New York, who recently announced they were building this luxury pets-only terminal. Until then, it's reassuring to know that the flight crew treats our animal friends the same as any other passenger when you're high in the sky.
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7-year-old Boston Terrier Simba is alive today after a nearly-fatal encounter during his first time flying.
The pup was placed in a crate and put in the Air Canada plane's cargo area for the nearly 12-hour flight.
When the cargo area's heating system malfunctioned, the pilot feared the tiny pup would freeze to death while flying over the icy Atlantic Ocean, so he diverted the flight to Frankfurt, Germany.
With only a 75-minute delay, Simba and the other passengers hopped aboard another flight to Pearson Airport, where owner German Kontorovich was reunited with the dog.
“It’s my dog, it’s like my child. It’s everything to me,” the grateful pet parent told CityNews.
"While we recognize this was an inconvenience for our customers, the overall reaction was positive, particularly once people understood the dog was in potential danger but safe as a result of the diversion," Air Canada said in a statement to CNN.
The pilot is being praised for his quick-thinking, which undoubtedly saved Simba's life.
