Catastrophe Avoided After Curious Feline Gets Loose on San Francisco-Bound United Flight
A feline was feeling adventurous on a United Airlines flight from Dallas to San Francisco and got loose from its carrier, causing just a little chaos on the Dec. 30 trip.
In a Storyful video that has now gone viral thanks to the quick-thinking camera work of passenger Dave Hislop, a loose cat roams the plane's cabin before a flight attendant springs into action, picking the pet up and taking it to passengers to ask, "Is anyone missing a cat?"
Another flight attendant assisted in the search for the feline's owner by hopping on the plane's overhead system to announce, "Have you lost your cat? If you boarded with a cat, gato, it is running around the airplane, and we're going to need you to come and claim that."
Ultimately, a man bashfully hopped up to claim his pet.
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It is unknown how the cat got free. According to United Airlines' website, traveling with a cat is permitted when space is available. The rules: The cat must travel in a hard-sided or soft-sided carrier that fits under the seat in front of the owner. There can only be one pet per carrier, and the cat must be able to stand up and turn around while inside.
Another cat, this one orange, caused airline mayhem recently.
A group of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers and an X-ray machine saved the day at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport by detecting a cat that someone unknowingly packed into a checked bag.
The furry find occurred on Nov. 16, according to the TSA, and involved a piece of luggage heading from New York to Florida on a Delta flight. Officers searched the bag containing the feline after the suitcase set off an alarm at a JFK checked baggage screening point, The Washington Post reported.
TSA agents examined the X-ray to see what set off the alarm and found an animal's unmistakable outline inside the luggage. They opened the bag and found a live orange cat tucked inside.
The TSA confirmed its "hiss-toric find," sharing several photos from the incident on Twitter. The pictures show an x-ray of the luggage containing the cat — where the pet's outline is easy to spot — and a shot of orange fur peeking out of the suitcase's zipper.
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TSA agents contacted the cat-infested bag's owner and discovered the feline did not belong to them.
"Traveler said the cat belonged to someone else in his household," TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein posted on Twitter Tuesday.
It "was implied" that the furball saw the open suitcase and jumped in without the traveler seeing it, Farbstein added to NBC News.
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According to the outlet, the TSA agents saved the cat from heading into the plane's cargo hold. The bag's owner missed their flight to Florida helping the cat safely return home from the airport and flew out the following day to start their trip feline-free.
