American Airlines flies pup home after owner dies

by Stephanus Surjaputra on March 4, 2009

American Airlines proves that it has a heart. After hearing the airlines fight to have the right to keep passengers imprisoned for more than four hours during tarmac delays, stick them with onerous change fees that force them to travel when sick and force many families to break up during transcontinental flights, it’s nice to hear a feel-good story.

This was just posted on AP.

Truck driver Robert Shields, 59, of Poway, Calif. was driving his semitrailer in Omaha, Neb. on Sunday. Zak, a one-year old Basenji mix was traveling with him in the cab. The truck drifted off Interstate 80 and hit a bridge support. Shields died but Zak was only scratched. Police say that Shields may have had a heart attack.

Shield’s wife told the Nebraska Humane Society that the family wanted Zak home desperately, so Pam Wiese, spokeswoman for the Humane Society put out a call for help.

American Airlines responded Tuesday and will pay for the freight to bring Zak home. AA, Wiese, and the Shields family are working out the details. Zak should be home by today.

I hate to sound cynical, but I don’t remember any such stories about the airlines treating stranded humans so humanely.

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Tagged as: American Airlines, omaha, pup

  • The man who notices things

    Can I fly as a pet? I’ll get treated better. Pets spend time in climate controlled rooms, climate controlled cargo holds and have food and water breaks every 4 hours [except on longer flights] – unlike the human passengers. Next time, I’ll be someone’s pet.

  • Frank

    I hate to sound cynical, but I don’t remember any such stories about the airlines treating stranded humans so humanely.
    =========================================================

    Sadly, you dont hear about the many airline employees who use their free time and benefits to help (stranded) HUMANS around the world. Pilots using their flying skills to transport terminally ill children to alternative destinations for treatment. Or flight attendants who use their flying benefits to escort children/families to the United States for adoption or relocation.

    http://www.airlineamb.org/TopLevel/3_Programs/Escort_Journal2.htm

    I know a flight attendant who travels to Eastern Europe multiple times a year with boxes and boxes of donated clothes and supplies. A classmate from training, used his travel benefits to fly to the Far East to adopt a baby.

  • kelley

    Congratulations! You managed to take a perfectly pleasant, feel good story, and convert it to a forum for your own petty, miguided griping. Obviously, you don’t “hate to sound cynical” at all. In fact, you leapt at the opportunity, unless you are claiming someone else took control of your keyboard and typed that last paragraph for you.

    Just out of curiosity, have you ever gone out of your way to help a lost or homeless animal? Put out some cat food, or take a dog home to try and find its owner? How often do you do that for humans?

    Enjoy your glass house.

  • Bill

    That was very nice of American Airlines, the Humane Society and the AA employees. It was a very good gesture on their part and I think they should be thanked and congratulated.

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