I want to share with you the situation which took place in January in Russia in flight from New York to Sofia via Moscow.
Passenger Maxim Chumachenko handed over the carrying with three cats to the luggage compartment in accordance with Aeroflot rules. Based on the norms, it is forbidden to take animals with you into the cabin, whose weight together with the container exceeds 8 kilograms.
When unloading luggage at Sheremetyevo, ”, another passenger flying the same flight told Chumachenko that cats were “thrown. He ran to the Aeroflot counter and asked where the animals were. He also asked why the cargo was not served one of the first, even though he paid for this service. “There they mumbled something to me that our animals were the last to board,” he said.
Chumachenko received broken carryings with cats from warehouse employees: one of them had a “bottom gone to the ceiling,” so they tied it up with a rope on top. The passenger was allowed to take cats into the cabin, but they died anyway: one on a plane from Moscow to Sofia, the other on the table at the veterinarian after landing.
According to preliminary conclusions, both pets died from internal hemorrhage, which provoked injuries received during transportation.
The third cat flew a transfer from New York to Sofia, so the owner did not know about her fate. She survived, but, judging by the diagnosis from the veterinarian, she received a frostbite.
Russian airline Aeroflot has become a target for social media criticism. The airlines themselves began to criticize airport workers, because it was, they who transported from one plane to another.
In addition to the disgusting treatment of animals by both guilty parties, they are trying to shift responsibility to each other.
Based on the method “problem/not a problem” analysis performed in the class, you can clearly see how this problem was not a significant problem until a tragic incident occurred.
Passengers have always talked about the incredible difficulties in transporting animals related to documentation, booking a seat in the cabin or in the luggage compartment, with a considerable amount of information and requirements for carrying the animal.
In response, the owner of an animal did not receive the necessary information about where and how the animal is transported, never were published some photos of the place of animals in the airplane and never were published the conditions in which the animal is during the trip.
In the modern world, according to statistics, every second habitant of the planet has a cat or dog. And it is accurate and understandable that they have the right to be transported under conditions, if not equated to human, then at least in those that do not threaten their life and health physical and psychological.
After the cats’ deaths, Russian users took to Aeroflot’s social media pages to leave negative comments, many of them were deleted. Soon, the comments transformed into a flashmob of photos showing pets in suitcases next to a sign saying “I’m not luggage. I’m a passenger!”
I can describe my experience with transporting my cat to Valencia. We flew three times with 2 different airlines, one of which was Aeroflot. 3 times I was presented with 3 different rules on the characteristics that a cat carrier should have so that I can take it with me to the salon. And if in the case of the S7 airline, which we flew twice, the airline’s employees were sympathetic to the fact that it is impossible to place an adult cat with the declared 20 cm, which should be a box for the cat , even if it is up to 4 kg, then in the case of Aeroflot wanted to put on a flight. Since the cat, along with the carrying, did not exceed the norm for carriage in the salon (up to 8 kg with Aeroflot), I refused to send him in luggage. During long negotiations and calls to the support service, and without having received permission to go through, I bought the 3rd carrier at the airport from the airline, which has an international standard for its branded transportation boxes for animals. However, this standard did not meet the Aeroflot standard, but it corresponded to the international standard, I managed to get into the salon with such a transfer and place it under the seat in front of the standing chair.
– All airlines set their own standard for transporting animals on an airplane, both for the cabin and for the luggage compartment, which they themselves do not always adhere to.
– Although you pay for the transportation of the animal, the animal is perceived as well as luggage, and also stands as an additional “non-standard baggage”.
-For the transportation of an animal, a lot of certificates should be presented, both at the exit and at the entrance, subject to its health, i.e. if the animal is sick, then it cannot move with its owner. While for people there is absolutely no medical check before boarding a flight.
Even in the course of the situation with coronavirus escalated in Europe, on the day this post was written 24/02/20 in Spain and in particular in Valencia there is not a single control over visitors. In this example, I can only note this airport, since it was precisely today that my friend flew from Russia to Valencia.
The blog of Logistics at MGEPS at UPV 