Dog’s Life Saved By Quick Thinking Cabin Crew Mid-Flight

When training as a flight attendant, one of the initial things you're taught is first aid. Cabin pressure can cause adverse effects for some passengers with the fluctuating oxygen levels and as cabin crew, you need to know how to respond. But what they probably don't teach you in flight school is how to deliver said first aid to non-human flyers. Luckily, the crew on board a Jetblue flight in 2018 improvised, and managed to save Darcy the beloved French Bulldog.

In the summer of 2018, Michele Burt, her husband Steven and their three dogs boarded a Jetblue flight from Florida to Massechusettes, a flight they take regularly with their canines.

The airline requires all animals to be in a cage underneath their owners' seats throughout the flight, so Michele and Steven made sure their pooches were safely tucked away and ready for take off.

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But shortly after the flight departed, Darcy, the couple's French Bulldog, started having breathing difficulties.

A worried Michele broke protocol and got Darcy out of her cage to see what was happening. Darcy's tongue had turned blue, which is a sign of insufficient oxygen.

The dog started to panic, which made her breath more frantically, according to Michele, who then sat her on her lap and tried everything to help her relax and cool down, but nothing was working.

Unaware that the dog was ill, flight attendant Renaud Spencer initially asked Michele to put the dog back in its cage as the airline is very strict. But once she realised something was wrong, she rushed to get help and her colleague Diane Asher came to assist.

Renaud and Diane started with putting bags of ice on Darcy to see if cooling her down would do the trick.

Then Diane, who owns a Frenchie herself thought of something else. It was going to break the airline's strict protocol, but she decided it was a risk worth taking to save poor Darcy.

Michele Burt)

Renaud went and fetched an oxygen tank and a mask and held it to Darcy's snout. Darcy began to improve and by the time the flight landed, she'd made a full recovery.

Grateful to the staff who saved Darcy's life on board, Michele wrote a letter to the airline.

"Thank you to Renaud and Diane for doing their job and also being great humans. My husband travels frequently and we are grateful for Jetblue and the ease and comfort of the extra -legroom, tv service and general decency among staff that we observed over the years but now we have another reason to be grateful. Thank you."

"I believe Renaud and Diane saved a life, some may reduce the value of life because Darcy is a canine - I do not."

JetBlue was. rightfully, incredibly proud of their staff and praised them. In a statement, the airline wrote: "Our mission is to inspire humanity, and we're very proud of those outstanding crew members who consistently demonstrate a passion for excellent customer service."

Topics: no article matching, Pets, travel, Dogs

Laura Sanders

Laura is a journalist working across all of LADbible's brands.

@laurathejourno