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An Air Canada pilot is being credited with saving a dog’s life by diverting a flight from Tel Aviv to Toronto after a heating system malfunction in the plane’s cargo area.
The seven-year-old French bulldog named Simba was taking its first flight when the pilot noticed the problem just as the plane was about to head over the Atlantic Ocean, where temperatures plummet.
With the dog’s well-being in peril the pilot decided to land the plane in Frankfurt, Germany.
Simba was placed on another flight and the plane continued on to Toronto.
The dog’s owner was more than grateful.
“It’s my dog, it’s like my child. It’s everything to me,” he said after they were reunited at Pearson Airport.
Aviation expert Phyl Durby said the pilot made the right call, despite tacking on about $10,000 in fuel costs and delaying the flight by 75 minutes.
“If you look at the outside temperature, if it’s minus 50 or 60, there is some insulation but it will probably still get down to below freezing (in the cargo area),” Durby said.
“The captain is responsible for all lives on board, whether it’s human or K-9.”
City News
Unruly passenger diverts American Airlines flight
An American Airlines flight to Chicago made an emergency landing Monday because of an allegedly unruly passenger, authorities said.
American Airlines Flight 1284, which departed from Miami, ended up landing in Indianapolis.
The passenger has been identified as Daniela Velez-Reyes by the Indianapolis Airport Authority.
“She was disoriented through the entire flight,” passenger Marian Frendt told ABC station WLS-TV in Chicago. “She started kicking the seat of the passenger in front of her, and he apparently turned around to complain … and she hit him.”
When a flight attendant intervened, Velez-Reyes allegedly grabbed the attendant’s face and kissed her, then punched her in the face, said a different passenger who told WLS that he witnessed the interaction.
Authorities said Velez-Reyes also kicked a police officer while being arrested.
Velez-Reyes was escorted off the plane in flex-cuffs. Passengers filmed the scene as officers helped her into the back of a patrol car.
She was charged with battery with injury, battery without injury, battery of a public safety officer, criminal recklessness, disorderly conduct and disruption of the operation of an aircraft, authorities said.
The arrest report lists that one woman, listed as one of the two victims, suffered an “apparent minor injury” though no further details about the injury were included.
The disruption caused the flight to arrive in Chicago about 90 minutes late.
ABC News