According to a report by the New York Post, Catalina Castano, the dog’s owner, was flying with her children and her small dog.  She wanted to keep the dog by her feet, but the flight attendant wouldn’t allow that and asked her to put the dog in overhead storage during the three-and-a-half-hour flight.

Castano was carrying the 10-month-old puppy, Kokito, with her in a standard pet carrier. After getting assurances from the flight attendant that the pet would be fine, she agreed to keep her dog in the overhead storage cabin. 

When the flight landed, she pulled the dog and found that it had died. 

The family is in deep shock and grief as they’ve lost one of their family members.

A fellow passenger witnessed the entire incident and posted it on Twitter.

It was as tragic for her as for the owner.

Another passenger posted the dead dog’s photo on Facebook,

The airline officials have taken full responsibility for the sad incident. A United Airlines’ spokesperson said,

This was a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin. We assume full responsibility for this tragedy and express our deepest condolences to the family and are committed to supporting them. We are thoroughly investigating what occurred to prevent this from ever happening again.

Hope the airlines learns a lesson from this tragedy and never ask any passenger to put their pets in overhead cabin.