Qantas apologises after dog death on plane

A woman has been left distraught after her dog died while being transported on a flight from Sydney to Brisbane. Kay Newman said that her boxer, named Duke, was left on the tarmac with no shade for more than an hour after her flight was delayed. On December 19, when it was close to 40 degrees in Sydney, Newman voiced her concerns to the airline but was assured Duke would be outside for only a few minutes. Airline procedure is to load animals last and unload them first. Newman said she was given permission to wait with Duke in the airconditioned office until the last possible minute before he was placed in his crate for the flight. "When I arrived at the boarding gates, I could see Duke's crate already on the tarmac. I'm not sure how long he'd already been there but as I watched, five, ten, fifteen minutes passed, and he was still out there, in the crate, in that heat. I alerted Qantas staff of my concerns over Duke being out in the heat, but I was assured that he was fine and would be loaded shortly." She said she became extremely distressed and started to cry only to be told via a phone call to the ground crew that her dog was fine. When she landed in Brisbane, her worst fears were realised Newman said she had been in constant contact with Qantas in the weeks since the incident, prompting her to start an online petition into the airline's animal handling procedures. "We have expressed our sympathies to Kay about the passing of her dog, Duke," a Qantas spokesperson said. "There was an unexpected delay with the flight which meant he was on the tarmac for longer than usual but our baggage handlers said Duke was fine when he was loaded onto the aircraft."<br/>