After a 10-month ban, pit bulls are welcome again on American Airlines.
The world's largest carrier outlawed adult pit bulls, Rottweilers, Doberman pinschers, and related mixed breeds from its planes a year ago after a 68-pound pit bull broke out of its kennel in the cargo hold of a Boeing 757 flying from San Diego to New York.
The dog chewed and clawed an 18- by 8-inch hole through a fiberglass bulkhead and bit through wires in an electronics compartment. The plane's crew lost the use of backup radio and data communications gear in flight but not any equipment vital to flying the plane.
The ban outraged dog organizations, particularly the American Kennel Club. The AKC called the decision a case of breed discrimination and blamed the incident on an improperly secured kennel.
American said the dog was in an approved plastic kennel with the door properly shut. A Web site for American pilots reported that the kennel door was damaged "where the dog apparently ran into it with its head."
The AKC launched a nationwide letter-writing campaign and met with animal handling experts for American and the International Air Transport Association, arguing that the problem was bad kennels, not bad dogs.
American announced in May it would require that kennels be sealed with reusable cable ties - like the plastic handcuffs used by police - on all four corners of the kennel's door. With the new requirement in place, American lifted the breed ban May 17.
