CNN
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It’s a nightmare state of affairs for any animal lover: having to take the one you love pet on a airplane after which discovering out they’ve been misplaced throughout transit.
That’s what occurred to Alyssa Kopp and her mom Mary Gomes Kopp when their cat Rodri went lacking on a flight in Europe on March 8.
Over a month since Gomes Kopp was introduced with Rodri’s damaged, empty cat provider, the pair are nonetheless preventing for solutions about what occurred to their pet – and need to increase consciousness for different animals misplaced in transit, too.
However largely, they only need to be reunited with Rodri, the partially sighted cat who turned one 12 months outdated on April 1.
As a substitute, they are saying, each the provider, Greece’s Aegean Airways, and its baggage handler have now stopped responding to them.
It was September 2023 when the pair first crossed paths with Rodri.
Gomes Kopp and her husband, Alyssa’s stepfather, are German however have a house on the Greek island of Crete. It’s there that they take care of round 60 stray cats – feeding them, taking them to the vet for medical remedy, and getting them neutered in a rustic the place stray cats are not always treated well. In addition they organize adoptions, and sometimes fly cats and canines off the island to new houses in locations round Europe.
Final September, Alyssa Kopp was staying with them once they discovered a kitten dwelling in a pile of trash.
“We noticed her varied instances and noticed that one in all her eyes wasn’t there, and he or she was in a very dangerous situation,” says Kopp.
“We caught her, and took her to the vet, who closed [her missing eye] very well, however he stated that her second eye was already turning white, and that when she was older and was able to be neutered, it’d be higher to fly her to Germany to an animal hospital, not only a vet. He stated they might deal with it higher in Germany.”
Rodri swiftly turned a a lot liked member of the household. After they first took her dwelling, says Kopp, “Mum cleaned her eye, and after just some minutes she was on her lap, sleeping for hours. She was so grateful and wished to cuddle.” Though she couldn’t see nicely together with her one remaining eye, Rodri shortly gained confidence. “When my dad and mom let her out to discover, she was so completely satisfied,” says Kopp.
So on March 8, Gomes Kopp ready to fly Rodri to Munich, the place Alyssa would take care of the cat after its remedy.
However Rodri by no means made it to Germany. One month on, the household nonetheless don’t have any clue about what occurred to her.
Rodri was one in all three cats checked in for Aegean Airways flight 331 from Chania, in Crete, to Athens. From there, after a brief switch of slightly below an hour, they had been as a result of be loaded onto one other Aegean Airways flight to Munich. The 2 different animals – one cat, one kitten – had been being taken to a brand new dwelling. They’d been adopted by a German household, and Gomes Kopp had supplied to deliver them over.
Gomes Kopp and her husband had put every cat in its personal provider, securing the edges with cable ties and extra screws. “They do this so nothing can occur,” says Alyssa Kopp, talking with CNN on behalf of her mom, who speaks little English.
Satirically, Aegean does enable vacationers to hold one cat within the cabin – however Gomes Kopp felt it was higher to load all three within the maintain, since they’re all former strays.
“Not all of the [rescue] animals are snug with too many individuals round – they are often extra scared of individuals than of loud noises,” says Kopp.
“It was laborious, however as a result of we’d had many good experiences with Aegean in cargo, she determined it was higher to [put them in the hold]. Flying is hectic for animals, nevertheless it’s higher to fly 5 hours than dwell on the road.”
At Chania airport, a consultant for Aegean Airways checked the paperwork and cleared the animals for the flight. The household had paid 360 euros ($390) for the three cats.
Gomes Kopp, who was touring alone, made it to Athens and not using a downside. However when she was ready to board her subsequent flight to Munich, her daughter says, she was approached by an airport worker who took her to the airplane which might be flying to Munich.
“They confirmed her the containers. One was damaged,” says Kopp.
A big part of plastic on the highest of one of many carriers had been damaged off, leaving a gap large enough for a cat to get by, and the provider was empty.
“They requested her if she gave them the field like this [at Chania], and the place the animal was. Then they requested her to verify if the opposite two animals had been within the different containers.”
Checking the carriers, she realized it was partially sighted Rodri that was lacking.
“They advised her they didn’t know what occurred,” says Kopp. “No one may give her solutions, they stated it will need to have occurred in Chania.”
Kopp says that her mom – by now distraught – was urged to take the subsequent flight as deliberate, fairly than search for Rodri on the bottom. Workers took the remaining carriers to the maintain as she determined what to do.
Because the two different cats needed to get to their new dwelling in Germany, Gomes Kopp determined to take the flight.
She has by no means seen Rodri once more.
The household, who’ve been campaigning on social media for the previous month to search out Rodri, paint a irritating image of their efforts to relocate him, saying neither Chania or Athens airport would take accountability.
Gomes Kopp has made 4 return journeys to Athens after receiving tip-offs of doable sightings, they stated, however was initially solely allowed to go looking public areas. Aegean Airways has coated three of her eight flights to seek for Rodri.
After receiving one other handful of doable Rodri sightings at Chania. Gomes Kopp was allowed into an plane loading space one time, however has not been allowed again since. The household says subsequent efforts to search out the cat have hit a brick wall, with employees at each airports eradicating posters, and employees from Chania returning a humane cat entice.
A spokesperson for Fraport Greece, which manages Chania airport, advised CNN it had achieved the whole lot it may inside aviation rules to find Rodri and stated the airline and the bottom dealing with firm, Goldair Dealing with, had been answerable for the protected transport of dwell animals.
Goldair stated it had adopted protocols in looking for the cat. “We’re investigating the circumstances surrounding the injury to Rodri’s provider, with the intention of implementing preventive measures to stop related occurrences sooner or later,” it stated in a press release.
Athens Worldwide Airport stated it had no indication the cat had arrived at its services and that the airline and ground-handling firm had been accountable, although it had allowed the household to go looking its services.
“Now we have additionally established a direct channel of communication with the household… [and] invited the household to seek for Rodri on the airport according to the relevant safety protocols and procedures,” a spokesperson stated.
For Kopp, the shortcoming to elucidate what occurred to the cat, factors to wider and extra troubling points.
“How can they not know what and the place it occurred? It’s their job to know what’s occurring [in an airport]. I feel it’s an enormous downside for safety,” she says.
In the meantime, Aegean Airways has not responded to the household in over a month. In e-mail exchanges between the Kopps and Aegean seen by CNN, a buyer providers consultant stated the three cats had been loaded correctly onto the airplane at Chania, however on arrival at Athens a ramp agent observed that one cage was broken and Rodri lacking. The Kopp household say that the CCTV doesn’t present the cats being loaded onto the airplane.
The e-mail stated that airline employees had searched each airports and the airplane itself, in addition to laying humane traps at an (unspecified) airport and circulating a photograph of Rodri to Chania airport workers.
That e-mail was dated March 13. The airline has not replied to the household since then, regardless of them flagging potential sightings. It has additionally emerged that Aegean Airways didn’t alert Athens airport of a possible lacking cat.
The airline didn’t reply to particular questions from CNN however stated it had achieved the whole lot it may and was investigating to stop a repeat of the incident.
“Sustaining open communication with Rodri’s dad and mom has been our precedence for the reason that second we had been made conscious of the scenario, and they’re already knowledgeable each on our efforts to find Rodri and our dedication to do the whole lot doable to facilitate their journey whereas they’re nonetheless pursuing personal actions for a similar motive,” it stated in a press release. it didn’t dispute not responding to the household since March 13.
For the Kopp household, this isn’t nearly Rodri. Since their story took maintain on social media, they’ve been contacted by “many individuals,” says Alyssa Kopp, sharing related tales of their pets going lacking.
Previously two weeks alone, two cats have been misplaced on Iberia flights inside Spain. A consultant for Iberia advised CNN that the airline is “looking” for the animals – Romeo, a black cat misplaced at Madrid airport on April 6, and Naia, a tabby misplaced at Tenerife on March 31 – however wouldn’t disclose what number of animals have gone lacking in-flight prior to now 12 months.
“It’s at all times the identical – in the event that they find the animals again it’s not as a result of they do one thing, it’s due to luck,” says Kopp. “They don’t do something to vary how they work. How can they promote tickets for 120 euros for one small animal, after which one thing like this occurs?
“We’re very grateful to airways that take animals, and each one in all us is aware of how laborious the job of floor dealing with is. But when they’ll’t do it, they need to cease taking animals. We paid 360 euros for 3 cats – it’s some huge cash.”
Aegean has not supplied a refund for Rodri’s ticket, or supplied compensation. However Kopp says they don’t need it anyway.
“Cash doesn’t give us the cat again. We don’t need the cash – we wish them to look, and we need to know what occurred, and the place.”