Boggle's narrow escape
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Nicola Evans emailed us about a flight she took with Cyprus Airways to the Netherlands. With her was her pet guinea pig, Boggle, safely stowed in the hold, or so she thought.
Running free outside the plane
When Nicola arrived in Amsterdam there was no sign of Boggle with the rest of her luggage. After much confusion, Boggle was eventually returned to her, not in her travel cage but in a box. Nicola later found out that Boggle's cage had been crushed when the plane was being unloaded. The top of the cage was totally destroyed. Boggle had a narrow escape. It seems she had jumped free before whatever crushed the cage would have got her. But she was no longer secure and at one point had even been running free on the tarmac outside the plane.
Boggle was distressed
By the time she was returned to Nicola, poor Boggle was very distressed. Nicola was told by a vet to keep an eye on her and she says her trip was ruined.
Cyprus Airways says Boggle's cage was properly loaded and well secured, but points out that the unloading is done by a third party contractor. It has been trying to get to the bottom of what happened and says that it safely flies thousands of animals every year. Even so, it has offered Nicola compensation, though she doesn't feel it makes up for what happened.
Boggle eventually recovered but will never fly again!
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Hi, I am a baggage handler at Amsterdam Airport in the Netherlands, and would like to say that the cargo hold in these planes is very small and it is not possible to allways load animals seperate to the luggage. In order for all the luggage to fit suitcases must also be loaded in the same hold around the animals. This can result in cages being damaged if there is turbulance.
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At the very least Nicola is entitled to compensation for the damaged cage.
Nicola should also be entitled to know who the third party contractor is and should file a complaint about the mishandling of live animals with Schipol airport authorities - who take this kind of thing _VERY_ seriously.
There is zero excuse for this incident. IATA rules for animal handling are very clear because of biosecurity hazards and appear to have been majorly breached, probably as a combination of poor loading as well as unloading.
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