United Airlines Accidentally Sends Dog To Japan Instead Of Kansas

A bad week for United Airlines got worse Tuesday, as an airline mixup resulted in a family dog missing its destination by several thousand miles, reported KCTV-5, a CBS affiliate in Kansas City, Missouri.

Irgo, a 10-year-old German Shepard, was supposed to land with his family in Kansas City, but somehow ended up in Japan instead.

Joseph and Kara Swindle, along with their two young children, were flying from Oregon to Kansas City Tuesday so they could sign the paperwork for their new house in Wichita, Kansas, the next morning. When they went to pick up Irgo from United’s cargo facility, they instead found a Great Dane.

According to Kara Swindle, the Great Dane was supposed to go to Japan and its kennel got mixed up with Irgo’s. United gave a statement to KCTV-5.

"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 apologize for this mistake and are following up with the vendor kennel where they were kept overnight to understand what happened."

Irgo eventually made it to Japan and will be shipped back to Kansas City after visiting with a veterinarian. United reportedly told Swindle that Irgo could potentially be stuck in Japan for two weeks as a safety precaution, since it was an international flight. Fortunately, there was no indication that anything was wrong with the dog when he landed more than 6,000 miles from his new home in Wichita.

It did not help United Airlines’ case that this story broke in the same week that a small dog died in a plane’s overhead bin, where it was placed at the request of a flight attendant. The family had followed all the correct protocol for carrying the French bulldog onto the flight, but they were told to put it in the overhead bin anyway. At the end of the three-hour flight, the dog was found dead.