Dog destined for Kansas flown to Japan via United Airlines

The owner found a Great Dane that was supposed to on his way to Japan instead of her dog

The United Airlines made headlines again on Thursday after it was revealed it sent a dog to Japan instead of his desired destination of Kansas, according to CNN.

This is the second embarrassment this week for the airline and a “nightmare” for the Swindle family, who were moving to Wichita from Oregon with their 10-year-old German shepherd known as Irgo.

The incident happened when Kara Swindle visited to retrieve Irgo at a United Airlines cargo facility in Kansas City on Tuesday. However, Irgo did not appear where he was supposed to be. Instead, she found a Great Dane that was supposed to on his way to Japan. Both the dogs were in Denver, where they were to catch connecting flights.

Swindles adopted Irgo when he was 4-years-old. "They had no idea where the dog was," Swindle said. "I burst into tears instantly because this has just all been a whirlwind. They didn't know (where Irgo was) until 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday when the plane landed in Japan."



She said, Irgo was flying for the first time, had no food or water on the 16-plus hour flight to Japan. Their beloved dog was reportedly suffering from an ear infection and hasn’t had medication in three days, she said. However, Irgo was checked in Japan and was alright to fly, Swindle said.

PHOTO COURTESY: CNN

The plan guide Irgo to fly from Narita, Japan to Wichita on a private plane on Thursday.

United Airlines expressed their apology and is looking into the matter.

"An error occurred during connections in Denver for two pets sent to the wrong destinations. We have notified our customers that their pets have arrived safely and will arrange to return the pets to them as soon as possible. We apologize for this mistake and are following up with the vendor kennel where they were kept overnight to understand what happened," the airline said.



A French bulldog passed away on a Houston-to-New York flight after a United flight attendant told its owners to put the dog, in its carrier, in an overhead bin. The airline said it was investigating the French bulldog's death "to prevent this from ever happening again."

Swindle believes, United Airlines might have a footage showing the mistake between the transfer of the dogs and said it doesn’t know how to mix-up occurred.

"I'm hoping that from now on they take better care of animals. They kind of treat them like they are luggage. I'm hoping they can put something into policy so that this will never happen again. Maybe putting a picture of the animal on the outside of the pen (instead of just paperwork, which is affixed on the outside of each crate). I don't want anyone to ever have to go through this again."

This article originally appeared on CNN.