Pitbull grounds 757 for 9 days!

[Hopeless_in_GA]

Airline bans 'over-aggressive' pit bulls.

BBC On Line ^ | Saturday, 17 August, 2002 |


American Airlines have banned over-aggressive dogs, after a pit bull terrier caused havoc in the cargo hold on a flight from San Diego to New York.

The Boeing 757 was out of service for nine days after the dog escaped from its cage and gnawed through electrical cables the thickness of a garden hose.

The crew heard repeated thumping in the hold and discovered back-up radio equipment and some navigation aids were not working.

The dog's overactive chewing did not cause damage to any vital systems, and the aircraft was not in any danger, the airline said.

As well as destroyed cabling, the masticating mastiff gnawed a hole in a bulkhead and damaged the cargo hold door in the incident last month.

Loose dog

The ground crew found the dog loose in the hold of the plan after landing.

"It turns out the dog did quite a bit of damage," said American Airlines spokeswoman Tara Baten.

As a result, rottweilers, Doberman pinschers, Staffordshire terriers and pit bull terriers have been banned.

Continental Airlines has already banned pit bulls.

The American Kennel Club said the ban was unjustified and called for it to be lifted.

"Regulations should not be based on breed identity. A dog's behaviour, and not its breed, should determine whether it is accepted for air shipment," said the club's chief executive, Alfred L Cheaure.

He said that a problem with the cage, not the dog, had been responsible for the problem.

But one Dallas breeder of Staffordshire terriers had some sympathy with American Airlines.

"It's pretty scary to have a dog come out of a crate and wreak havoc," said Carla Restivo.

So far, American Airlines has not yet sought damages from the dog's owners, who had paid $177.78 to send the animal across the US.

 

[ShawnC]

I can only think of what the first words were out of the cargo handlers mouth when they opened the hold up to see a Pitbull staring at him.

 

[Hugh Jorgan]

Reminds me of Bugs Bunny and the Tasmanian Devil...

 

[Dep676]

Sounds just like the knotheads that want to outlaw handguns. Just because one person shot another person. One bad apple and the whole bushel is bad. That's reasonable thinking.

 

[Tim47SIP]

You aint seen nothin!

Could have been worse, my wife could have been down there instead of that tame Pit Bull!

 

[Freight Dog]

ROFLMAO Tim!!!

 

[DCitrus9]

I've got the pics of the cargo bay on my computer, but I can't post attachments. If you want to see them PM me and I'll email them back. They're nothing spectacular-unless you remember it was done by a dog!

 

[aggiepilot87]

Sounds just like the knotheads that want to outlaw handguns. Just because one person shot another person. One bad apple and the whole bushel is bad. That's reasonable thinking.

Hey, I'm pro-gun (pro-constitution), but those d@mn dogs bother me. I've got a real concern about them getting ahold of one of my kids at the beach, park or wherever people bring those things. talk about an unpredictable menace!

 

[A Squared]

Like Aggiepilot87, I'm pro-handgun/pro-constitution too. The thing is there's a fundamental different between a gun and a dog. Without a human attatched, a gun is just a cold, inert piece of metal. The dog, on the other hand, acts of it's own impulse, and according to it's temperment and training. The fact is, Dobermans, rottweilers, pit-bulls, wolf hybrids, and such can and do kill people, all by themselves. I recall looking at the pedigree for a pitbull terrier once. What struck me was that all the dogs in the ancestry had names like "darth Vadar" "menace" and such, all suggestive of evil and violence. This, to me indicates that, not only the owners, but the breeders also, value the agressive nature and baaaad reputation of the dogs. Would it be a stretch to suggest that they even encourage it?

Every time this subject comes up, some buffoon stands up for the local reporters and babbles on about how the pit bull is really a sweet tempered, cuddly creature which loves childeren. Uh huh, right. Let's be serious for a moment. You don't get a pit bull, or a rottweiler, because you heard they were good with childeren, you get one because you want a bad, mean, a$$-kicking dog. To suggest otherwise, is completely dishonest. If the airlines, which are private entities, wish to refuse to carry certain animals, that's their perrogative.


regards

 

[Dep676]

I don't dispute the pitbulls. I wouldn't even want to be around one. As far as the other breeds they are good dogs. It just depends on how they are raised. I have been bitten by a poodle and some other some breed of dog. Those are the ones that you need to watch out for.

When I am riding in the cruiser with the full-times guys they get calls all the times for "viscious dogs". They show up and the dog jumps in the cruiser or comes over and plays with the dep's until they find the owner. People read or saw on the news that one of those dogs bit somebody. So that must make the whole breed bad. So it's just in how they are brought up. I had a great dane and some many people were scared just because of his size. He was great around any kids. He would lick you to death before he would think about biting you. His bark was pretty scary though. That was the worse part about him.

My neighbor has a rottweiler and I wouldn't even hesitate leaving my kids over there with him. So to put on these dogs in the same boat because of one bad apple is nonsense. I again stress that I don't like pit-bulls. So many of them have been inbreed and that just ruins the dogs.

As far as the name of a dog. That is the owner choice. That's like saying everybody with the name Joe or Tom for example are bad people. Just call your local jail and find out if any of the inmates have your name or your kids name. Then that must make them a bad person because they have they same name as an inmate.

 

[A Squared]

>>> I have been bitten by a poodle and some other some breed of dog. Those are the ones that you need to watch out for.

sure, it's ceratinly not a black and white situation. To even further muddy the waters, I have heard it said that statistlally, you are most likely to be bitten by a labrador retriever. When I was a kid, the dog in town which had bitten the most people was a black lab.

You know a very gentle, well behaved rottweiler, I knew one that bit everyone that got close wnough, including it's owner.

All that aside, I think that policies or laws against certain kinds of dogs are a very, very, different story than gun-banning hysteria.

As far as the name, I'm not recommending destroying all dogs with a certain name, or making it illegal to give you dog a certain name.

My point was, and you seemed to have missed it, was that the pedegree was a revealing glimpse into the the true mindset of the pitbull owner/breeder community; an insight that belies the cr@p that always pops up in the local newspaper about what friendly, cuddly animals pitbulls really are. That being said, I think a lot of people might agree that a German shepherd named "killer" by it's owner, is likely to have been encouraged to have a more agressive temperment than one named "muffin" by a different owner. It's more of a reflection of values of the owners, but that doesn't make it any less true.

Like you said, it just depends on how they were raised

yeah, I'll agree that you're probably more likely to get bitten by a poodle, or a lab, but, whenever I read about someone getting killed, or really badly maimed by a dog, it seems to me that it's always a pitbull, rottweiler, doberman, or a wolf hybrid.

regards

 

[Blueline]

This is one of my favorite dog stories from ASRS:

SYNOPSIS

MULTIPLE PLT RPT, ATR42-320, DOG GOT OUT OF KENNEL IN CARGO, THEN LOOSE IN COCKPIT, RESTRAINED TWICE, GOT LOOSE AGAIN, LANDED IN COCKPIT WITH COPLT HOLDING HIM WITH ONE HAND, CHKLIST IN OTHER HAND.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NARRATIVE

WE WERE TRANSPORTING A DOG IN AN OWNER SUPPLIED CAGE AS CARGO FROM SYRACUSE, NY, TO NEWARK, NJ. CLBING OUT OF SYRACUSE, WE HEARD SOME BANGING IN THE CARGO BIN BEHIND THE FLT DECK. WE ASSUMED IT WAS THE DOG MOVING AROUND IN THE CAGE. APPROX 15 MINS INTO CRUISE, I GOT OUT OF MY SEAT TO GO TO THE BATHROOM. UPON OPENING THE SMOKE DOORS BTWN THE COCKPIT AND CARGO BIN, I SAW THE BLACK LABRADOR CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR OF THE CARGO BIN. I CLOSED THE SMOKE DOORS AND ADVISED THE CAPT OF THE SIT. THE DOG BEGAN POKING HIS NOSE THROUGH THE BOTTOM BLOW-OUT PANEL OF THE SMOKE DOORS. UNABLE TO SECURE THE DOORS, THE DOG CAME INTO THE FLT DECK. I HAD THE DOG BY THE COLLAR, WHEN IT WEDGED ITSELF BTWN THE CAPT'S SEAT AND THE PEDESTAL. I PHYSICALLY REMOVED THE DOG FROM THE FLT DECK AND, WITH THE HELP OF A PAX, WAS ABLE TO SECURE THE DOG IN ITS CAGE. WE FACED THE CAGE TO THE WALL IN AN EFFORT TO PREVENT THE DOG FROM ESCAPING AGAIN. WHEN THE SIT WAS OVER, I RETURNED TO MY POS. WE CONTINUED THE FLT AND NOTIFIED DISPATCH OF THE SIT. AFTER PASSING HUO AND BEGINNING THE ARR TO EWR, THE DOG RE-ENTERED THE FLT DECK FROM THE CARGO BIN. IT HAD ESCAPED AGAIN. IT NOW POSITIONED ITSELF BEHIND THE CAPT'S SEAT TO GET A BETTER VIEW THROUGH THE CAPT'S WINDOW. WE WERE UNABLE TO SECURE THE DOG. I HELD THE DOG BY THE COLLAR AND RAN THE CHKLISTS FOR THE APCH. WE CONTINUED AND LANDED UNEVENTFULLY IN EWR. AFTER LNDG AND BLOCKING IN, THE DOG WAS RESECURED IN THE CAGE. THE CAGE HAD BEEN PREVIOUSLY SECURED WHILE INFLT, BUT THE DOG WAS STILL ABLE TO ESCAPE. THERE SHOULD BE TIE WRAPS AVAILABLE TO SECURE ANY CAGES TRANSPORTING ANIMALS. THIS COULD HAVE BECOME A SAFETY ISSUE IF THE DOG HAD BEEN MORE AGGRESSIVE. SUPPLEMENTAL INFO FROM ACN 481927: THE FLT ATTENDANT CAME UP TO ASSIST AND ADVISED US THAT NOBODY ONBOARD CLAIMED TO BE THE OWNER. IT WAS AT THIS TIME THAT I NOTIFIED COMPANY DISPATCH AND INFORMED THEM OF THE SIT. I ASKED THEM TO CALL NEWARK OPS AND ADVISE THEM NOT TO OPEN THE CARGO DOOR. WHILE TALKING TO COMPANY ON THE #2 RADIO, ZBW CALLED US A COUPLE OF TIMES FOR A FREQ CHANGE. I INFORMED THEM WE WERE DEALING WITH A SIT, BUT DID NOT TELL THEM OF THE NATURE. WE WERE STARTING THE INITIAL DSCNT INTO THE NEW YORK CITY AREA FROM 15000 FT TO 7000 FT WHILE DEALING WITH THIS PROB. WHILE BEING VECTORED FOR FINAL APCH, THE DOG GOT LOOSE AGAIN. WE HAD ALREADY BEEN CLRED FOR THE VISUAL APCH TO RWY 22L AT NEWARK AND WE HAD OUR SEQUENCE AND RWY IN SIGHT. WE ELECTED TO CONTINUE THE APCH AND LNDG, BUT DID NOT ADVISE APCH OR TWR CTLR OF THE SIT. CALLBACK CONVERSATION WITH RPTR ON ACN 481664 REVEALED THE FOLLOWING INFO: THE RPTR STATED THAT HE BELIEVES THE WAY THE DOG GOT OUT OF THE LOCKED KENNEL WAS BY BEATING HIS HEAD AND BODY AGAINST THE DOOR OPENING, WHICH WAS HINGED ON ONE SIDE. IT COULD BE OPENED BY TURNING THE KNOB CLOCKWISE, WHICH PULLS THE PINS OUT. THE CARGO COMPARTMENT IS AN AREA BTWN THE COCKPIT AND PAX CABIN ON THE SAME AISLE. IT HAS WEBBING TO RESTRAIN THE CARGO FROM GETTING LOOSE IN THE CABIN. SOMEHOW, THE DOG CRAWLED UNDERNEATH THE WEBBING. THERE IS NO RESTRAINING SYS TO HOLD THE KENNEL STABLE OR FROM SLIDING AROUND, OTHER THAN BEING PLACED NEXT TO LUGGAGE OR BOXES. THE PLANE HAS 2 HALF SMOKE DOORS IN FRONT OF THE COCKPIT, THE BOTTOM BEING RESTRAINED BY MAGNETS. THE DOG MOVED THIS DOOR TO GET INTO THE COCKPIT. THE PAX IN THE FIRST ROW HELPED LIFT THE KENNEL, WITH THE DOG INSIDE, INTO ANOTHER AREA IN CARGO. WHEN THE DOG BROKE OUT AGAIN ON LNDG, THE COPLT HAD TO TWIST HIS BODY AND HOLD DOWN THE DOG WITH HIS L HAND AND HOLD THE CHKLIST WITH THE OTHER HAND. THE DOG NEVER GOT BTWN THE PEDALS AND THE YOKE. HE JUST BARELY TOUCHED THE CAPT'S SEAT. HE SUGGEST THAT A PLASTIC TIE WRAP BE USED TO SECURE KENNEL DOORS CLOSED IN THE FUTURE.