Amateur airport officials in Chennai, India scrambled the whole night on Monday along with hundreds of volunteers to trace a dog that escaped, after it was placed on the baggage handling conveyor belt.
In an incident that could reflect poorly upon the airport security system and its operational procedures, the pet dog that flew along with an Emirates Airline passenger from Dubai escaped the airport premises through an open gate and was only traced after 36 hours from a neighborhood street.
A red alert was sounded as the dog ran out of the terminal and into the airfield, before managing to get out through gate number nine, which was incidentally open for an incoming truck.
Babita Jacob, a resident of Al Ain was travelling with Ricky, her eight month old Saluki – the Persian greyhound, a rare breed in India on Sunday evening. Narrating the sequence of events her husband Saban Alex says the incident is a clear example of ignorance and unprofessionalism of airport staff at some of the Indian airports, when compared to Dubai.
“All the procedures were meticulously completed by the Emirates staff in Dubai and Ricky was screened separately, before being allowed to fly with the passenger and not as cargo. However, upon landing at Chennai, the local handling crew, just dumped the dog which was in the crate on the baggage conveyor. One of the wheels of the crate broke and the latch opened up, allowing our dog to flee the place in panic,” said Alex.
Babita who was waiting at the airport was then told by the airline staff that her dog had ran away from the airport. “The airport staff along with the handlers then went on a frantic search operation within the airport. The whole airport was completely searched but Ricky could not be found. All airport staff were shown his photograph. Since he was travelling, we had fitted him into a t-shirt which thankfully made it easy for the staff to identify the dog,” he added.
According to media reports, almost 100 volunteers from a group called “friends of Police were pressed into service. India is a very crowded place and some people on the streets had remembered seeing the dog with a t-shirt. One witness led to the other and finally it was found in a nearby street and was being walked away by someone,” said Alex.
“Thankfully one of the airport staff who was driving in a white car found Ricky and called out his name. He immediately responded and upon seeing the white car, the same colour as my vehicle here, jumped inside,” he said.
According to him Emirates airline, although it was no mistake of theirs have arranged free transportation for Babita and her dog from Chennai to Kottayam in Kerala. “Because of this incident she missed her train to Kerala. Babita only flew to Chennai because we did not receive permission to enter the Kochi airport with our dog. In India, you can only travel with your pets to one of the four metros,” added Alex.
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