Memorial Day is notorious for travel delays, but on Monday a flight headed to Los Angeles made an emergency landing for a particularly peculiar cause — an ailing pooch in need of medical care.
Delta Flight 694 was diverted en route from Detroit to Los Angeles International Airport on Monday evening to allow a passenger and a sick dog to disembark in Minneapolis, according to a statement from the airline.
A crew was alerted that a dog in the cabin was feeling unwell, and a veterinarian on board volunteered to provide emergency care. Rather than continue the five-hour flight, a decision was made to land the Airbus A320 as soon as possible, resulting in a 2½-hour delay for the 181 passengers and six crew members on board.
“The safety of our customers and people comes before everything else at Delta,” said an airline spokesperson in a statement. “That’s why Delta flight 694 diverted to MSP to ensure a cabin pet that became ill received proper care.”
Medical personnel met the dog and its owner as soon as the plane arrived at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. A passenger on board told KTLA News that the captain made an announcement that the pet was expected to survive.
The plane then resumed its journey and traveled the remaining four hours to Los Angeles without incident.
Delays on Delta flights are somewhat unusual. In January, the airline was ranked the most on-time U.S. carrier, with 83% of their flights landing by their arrival time, according to a report by aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Delta Flight 694 was among some 7,691 flights that saw delays to, from and within the U.S. on Memorial Day, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. The vast majority of those delays were not pet-related and instead caused by a series of severe thunderstorms sweeping through the southeastern and central United States.
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport saw the worst of the travel woes with 697 flights, representing 59% of all trips, delayed. Denver International Airport came in second with 565 flight delays, representing 53% of all trips.
LAX fared much better in comparison, with 153 delays representing 16% of all flights. More than 400,000 Southern Californians were expected to travel by air over Memorial Day weekend, according to the AAA.
