CNN
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It’s a nightmare situation for any animal lover: having to take the one that you love pet on a aircraft 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 combating for solutions about what occurred to their pet – and need to increase consciousness for different animals misplaced in transit, too.
But principally, they simply need to be reunited with Rodri, the partially sighted cat who turned one yr old on April 1.
Instead, they are saying, each the provider, Greece’s Aegean Airlines, 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 home on the Greek island of Crete. It’s there that they look after 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. They additionally prepare adoptions, and infrequently fly cats and dogs off the island to new properties in locations round Europe.
Last September, Alyssa Kopp was staying with them once they discovered a kitten dwelling in a pile of trash.
“We saw her various times and saw that one of her eyes wasn’t there, and she was in a really bad condition,” says Kopp.
“We caught her, and took her to the vet, who closed [her missing eye] really well, but he said that her second eye was already turning white, and that when she was older and was ready to be neutered, it’d be better to fly her to Germany to an animal hospital, not just a vet. He said they could handle it better in Germany.”
Rodri swiftly grew to become a a lot beloved member of the household. When they first took her home, says Kopp, “Mum cleaned her eye, and after just a few minutes she was on her lap, sleeping for hours. She was so grateful and wanted to cuddle.” Although she couldn’t see nicely along with her one remaining eye, Rodri rapidly gained confidence. “When my parents let her out to explore, she was so happy,” 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.
But Rodri by no means made it to Germany. One month on, the household nonetheless haven’t any clue about what occurred to her.
Rodri was certainly one of three cats checked in for Aegean Airlines flight 331 from Chania, in Crete, to Athens. From there, after a brief switch of slightly below an hour, they have been on account of be loaded onto one other Aegean Airlines flight to Munich. The two different animals – one cat, one kitten – have been being taken to a brand new home. They had been adopted by a German household, and Gomes Kopp had supplied to carry them over.
Gomes Kopp and her husband had put every cat in its personal provider, securing the perimeters with cable ties and extra screws. “They do that so nothing can happen,” says Alyssa Kopp, talking with CNN on behalf of her mom, who speaks little English.
Ironically, 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 the [rescue] animals are comfortable with too many people around – they can be more scared of people than of loud noises,” says Kopp.
“It was hard, but because we’d had many good experiences with Aegean in cargo, she decided it was better to [put them in the hold]. Flying is stressful for animals, but it’s better to fly five hours than live on the street.”
At Chania airport, a consultant for Aegean Airlines 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 drawback. But 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 aircraft which might be flying to Munich.
“They showed her the boxes. One was broken,” says Kopp.
A big part of plastic on the highest of one of many carriers had been damaged off, leaving a gap sufficiently big for a cat to get via, and the provider was empty.
“They asked her if she gave them the box like this [at Chania], and where the animal was. Then they asked her to check if the other two animals were in the other boxes.”
Checking the carriers, she realized it was partially sighted Rodri that was lacking.
“They told her they didn’t know what happened,” says Kopp. “Nobody could give her answers, they said it must have happened in Chania.”
Kopp says that her mom – by now distraught – was urged to take the subsequent flight as deliberate, slightly than search for Rodri on the bottom. Staff took the remaining carriers to the maintain as she determined what to do.
Since the 2 different cats needed to get to their new home 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 potential sightings, they stated, however was initially solely allowed to look public areas. Aegean Airlines has coated three of her eight flights to seek for Rodri.
After receiving one other handful of potential 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 workers at each airports eradicating posters, and staff from Chania returning a humane cat lure.
A spokesperson for Fraport Greece, which manages Chania airport, instructed CNN it had carried out every part it may inside aviation laws to find Rodri and stated the airline and the bottom dealing with firm, Goldair Handling, have been accountable for the protected transport of stay animals.
Goldair stated it had adopted protocols in looking for the cat. “We are investigating the circumstances surrounding the damage to Rodri’s carrier, with the intention of implementing preventive measures to prevent similar occurrences in the future,” it stated in a press release.
Athens International Airport stated it had no indication the cat had arrived at its amenities and that the airline and ground-handling firm have been accountable, although it had allowed the household to look its amenities.
“We have also established a direct channel of communication with the family… [and] invited the family to search for Rodri at the airport in line with the applicable security protocols and procedures,” a spokesperson stated.
For Kopp, the lack to elucidate what occurred to the cat, factors to wider and extra troubling points.
“How can they not know what and where it happened? It’s their job to know what’s going on [in an airport]. I think it’s a big problem for security,” she says.
Meanwhile, Aegean Airlines has not responded to the household in over a month. In electronic mail exchanges between the Kopps and Aegean seen by CNN, a buyer providers consultant stated the three cats have been loaded correctly onto the aircraft 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 aircraft.
The electronic mail stated that airline workers had searched each airports and the aircraft itself, in addition to laying humane traps at an (unspecified) airport and circulating a photograph of Rodri to Chania airport workers.
That electronic 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 Airlines did not alert Athens airport of a possible lacking cat.
The airline didn’t reply to particular questions from CNN however stated it had carried out every part it may and was investigating to forestall a repeat of the incident.
“Maintaining open communication with Rodri’s parents has been our priority since the moment we were made aware of the situation, and they are already informed both on our efforts to locate Rodri and our commitment to do everything possible to facilitate their travel while they are still pursuing private actions for the same reason,” 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 people,” says Alyssa Kopp, sharing related tales of their pets going lacking.
In the previous two weeks alone, two cats have been misplaced on Iberia flights inside Spain. A consultant for Iberia instructed CNN that the airline is “searching” 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 previously yr.
“It’s always the same – if they find the animals again it’s not because they do something, it’s because of 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 airlines that take animals, and every one of us knows how hard the job of ground handling is. But if they can’t do it, they should stop taking animals. We paid 360 euros for three cats – it’s a lot of money.”
Aegean has not supplied a refund for Rodri’s ticket, or supplied compensation. But Kopp says they don’t need it anyway.
“Money doesn’t give us the cat back. We don’t want the money – we want them to look, and we want to know what happened, and where.”
