https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aviati ... lgium/amp/

Probably only my 2nd post in over a decade,but since it happened in my neck of the woods and I didn't find it elsewhere,I thought I would share.

Truly tragic,not least because it was completely preventable.

Even if they did not have a ground heat cart,there are plenty available on LGG airport and most of the people I know would loan one without even charging.

A truly horrible way to die and the blame game in full motion.

Such a sad story, the bears didn't deserve this..No mention of the airline that was involved in this..

That was reportedly in the media as being QR, but fingerpointing makes no sense, there are many reasons why this could have happened.
Needless to say that HUGE mistakes have been made, either airline, handler, customs, etc. and most likely a combination of stakeholders are involved in a VERY bad way!

The article may have been updated, but the animals that died were sloths. The title has been updated accordingly.

✈️ atcsundevil

Aww, poor things. Do we know who the operating carrier was yet?

Horrific. Humanities mistreatment of animals is continually shocking, and cause for many of our issues.

floridaflyboy wrote:

Aww, poor things. Do we know who the operating carrier was yet?

Connect the dots.....

"The nine sloths were transported as cargo inside and aircraft from a Qatarese company, which landed on Saturday morning..."

This is so awful it makes me want to cry.

Nothing surprises me regarding the totally inept handling company that handles QR at LGG.

I mean ... LGG is a major hub of FedEx, which I can hardly imagine as lacking freight handling knowledge and experience (not sure though if any other company does ground handling as well, in particular for QR cargo). This though screams ignorance and incompetence and there should be severe punishment for the people who failed to exercise reasonable judgement (no doubt, while sitting in the warm, letting the poor creatures freeze to death - so tragic and so sad).

tjwgrr wrote:

floridaflyboy wrote:

Aww, poor things. Do we know who the operating carrier was yet?

Connect the dots.....
"The nine sloths were transported as cargo inside and aircraft from a Qatarese company, which landed on Saturday morning..."

It looks like there are 2 possible QR flights/aircraft this incident could have been based on the date (early Saturday 01/21/2023) and the fact that the aircraft were stuck in LGG for at least 24 hours.

QTR8099 (GRU-UIO-PTY-LGG) A7-BFU B777-FDZ.

• According to this ADS-B Exchange log, A7-BFU landed at LGG at 01:13 CET on Saturday (01/21/2022) and parked at the Cargo North ramp at 01:33 CET.
• It looks like they moved the aircraft 2X @ 04:31-04:32 and 07:23-07:33 according to this ADS-B Exchange log.
• This website: Aviation24.be Post #422644 shows a picture of A7-BFU with the caption:
  

  Quite a difficult day at LGG today : not a single aircraft movement since 11:00 LT due to stand and taxiway icing.
  A Qatar Cargo B777 was even damaged during a push-back procedure !
  

• A7-BFU departed Sunday (01/22/2023) at 12:13 CET as QTR8099 (LGG-DOH).

QTR8134 (GRU-SCL-UIO-PTY-LGG) A7-BFF B777-FDZ

• According to this ADS-B Exchange log, A7-BFF landed at LGG at 05:20 CET on Saturday (01/21/2023) and parked at the Cargo North ramp at 05:35 CET.
• It looks like they moved the aircraft 2X @ 06:45-06:48 and 08:47-08:52 according to this ADS-B Exchange log.
• A7-BFF departed Sunday (01/22/2023) at 11:12 CET as QTR8134 (LGG-DOH)

The article states "The nine sloths were transported as cargo inside and aircraft from a Qatarese company, which landed on Saturday morning. As the aircraft was blocked on the taxiway, it could not be reached safely due to the winter weather."

Also the animals weren't supporsed to be offloaded in Liege. They originated in Peru and were in transit to Doha with final destination Kuala Lumpur. Airport claims this is why they didn't know about this cargo.
It is unclear if they died because of cold or underfeeding
(this from an aricle in Dutch: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2023/01/30/drie-beren-vriezen-dood-op-luchthaven-van-luik-na-24-uur-in-ijsk/)

Still strange that a plane can end up stuck on a taxiway because of snow in a place that's no stranger to snow. It was worse than usual, with also ice. But still... .

How is it possible nobody took care of those animals? Who could/should have known they were there?
Perhaps offloading them was impossible, but feeding and heating I guess would have been possible? Can you keep cargo warm when plane is stuck for 24hrs?

Jalap wrote:

The article states "The nine sloths were transported as cargo inside and aircraft from a Qatarese company, which landed on Saturday morning. As the aircraft was blocked on the taxiway, it could not be reached safely due to the winter weather."

Several news articles mention the aircraft was stuck or blocked on the taxiway but the ADS-B Exchange LGG landing logs for A7-BFU and A7-BFF show both aircraft taxied to the LGG Cargo North ramp after landing without being "stuck" on the taxiway.

A couple of other newsites mention the following:

• A news article from Sudinfo shows a picture of A7-BFU (showing the damage reported in Aviation24.be Post #422644) and a sloth:
  
• A news article from Politico.eu mentions the following:
  

  By the time Swissport — one of the biggest airport services companies in the world, which was in charge of organizing transport of the sloths — warned the Belgian authorities, three of the nine sloths that were on the plane had died.

  
  Per the A7-BFU landing log, it parked in front of the Swissport Cargo facility. The A7-BFF landing log shows it parked to the east of A7-BFU in front of the Aviapartner Cargo facility.

With A7-BFU being...

• On the ground 4 hours longer than A7-BFF
• Having a towing incident to contend with
• Parked in front of the Swissport Cargo facility which apparently was organizing the transport of the sloths
• Departed 1 hour after A7-BFF departed

...this suggests this may be aircraft where the 3 sloths perished. Awaiting confirmation.

P.S. Neither of the 2 aircraft flew to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) or Indonesia after landing at Doha on 01/22/2023. Assuming the 9 remain sloths were transferred to another QR flight.

I’m reading that three died. Does that mean six of them survived? Let’s hope so.

Sadly, throughout the world, people still treat animals as animals with having very little thought or care for their suffering and eventual death. Look no further than what Putin has done in Ukraine. While I don't want this post to turn into a political debate, there are tons of pets roaming the freezing streets of Ukraine that were once family pets. They are now left homeless and to fend for themselves. There are tons of Youtube videos showing this and it is heartbreaking. War not only harms humans, but its effect on animals is equally devastating.

The pilots should be dismissed for this. They are responsible for live cargo. Shocking but not surprised from a company operating from Qatar. They don’t value human rights so why would they that of animals.

davies2911 wrote:

The pilots should be dismissed for this. They are responsible for live cargo. Shocking but not surprised from a company operating from Qatar. They don’t value human rights so why would they that of animals.

Nothing the pilots could do about this. Pilots don’t get any say on how cargo is treated.

davies2911 wrote:

The pilots should be dismissed for this. They are responsible for live cargo. Shocking but not surprised from a company operating from Qatar. They don’t value human rights so why would they that of animals.

The pilots are not load masters. Regardless of your hatred towards Qatar, the airline is in the business of making money and having cargo perish does not help generate revenue long term.

zeke wrote:

Nothing the pilots could do about this. Pilots don’t get any say on how cargo is treated.

Well, the cockpit crew signs of the NOTOC, so for sure they are aware of AVI being loaded on the flight(s).
And, yes the captain also has the final decision and accepts the aircraft.
So for sure the captain has a responsibility here too.

DALCE wrote:

zeke wrote:

Nothing the pilots could do about this. Pilots don’t get any say on how cargo is treated.

Well, the cockpit crew signs of the NOTOC, so for sure they are aware of AVI being loaded on the flight(s).
And, yes the captain also has the final decision and accepts the aircraft.
So for sure the captain has a responsibility here too.

Responsibility for what.?

If the handling company either can't or won't reach the animals. There's nothing the captain can do about it.

They accepted the cargo on the belief that it will be handled appropriately.

If that doesn't happen because of factors outside of their control it's not their fault.

DALCE wrote:

zeke wrote:

Nothing the pilots could do about this. Pilots don’t get any say on how cargo is treated.

Well, the cockpit crew signs of the NOTOC, so for sure they are aware of AVI being loaded on the flight(s).
And, yes the captain also has the final decision and accepts the aircraft.
So for sure the captain has a responsibility here too.

I’ve never seen a NOTOC for live animals at any of the carriers I’ve flown for, unsure others.

The pilots are responsible for keeping the hold heated in flight I would guess. Once the aircraft has landed and engines shut down, that's another story.

Maybe time to impose a human flying with such sensitive cargo (not in the cargo hold, but on the flight).

DALCE wrote:

That was reportedly in the media as being QR, but fingerpointing makes no sense, there are many reasons why this could have happened.

There is clearly negligence here that resulted in the deaths of three animals, and you think that it makes "no sense" to try to establish who was at fault, and thus liable?

se210 wrote:

With A7-BFU being...

• On the ground 4 hours longer than A7-BFF
• Having a towing incident to contend with
• Parked in front of the Swissport Cargo facility which apparently was organizing the transport of the sloths
• Departed 1 hour after A7-BFF departed

...this suggests this may be aircraft where the 3 sloths perished. Awaiting confirmation.

This Tweet from @fl360aero mentions the aircraft was A7-BFU.

@fl360aero wrote:

Three of the nine sloths have frozen to death after being left in a Qatar Airways B777-F Cargo Aircraft (A7-BFU), grounded for 24 hours due to bad weather conditions at Liège airport, Belgium on January 21.

At my carrier, live animals are listed on the NOTOC after dangerous goods, along with temperature control items.

I'm responsible for checking the NOTOC during a delay to handle any temperature control items or live animals. Offload and store as necessary or leave on board and consult with the flight crew.

In my time we have lost some live animals. Several not by our mistake. A few we did mishandle.

As the airline representative on the ground, we have the responsibility to handle and follow up on the live animals in transit.

N757KW

DALCE wrote:

Well, the cockpit crew signs of the NOTOC, so for sure they are aware of AVI being loaded on the flight(s).
And, yes the captain also has the final decision and accepts the aircraft.
So for sure the captain has a responsibility here too.

Once the flight lands that NOTOC is invalid, cargo is no longer the responsibility of the flight crew.

QR staff and their ground handling agent in LGG have dropped the ball here big time. Both would have received loading information from the previous station and both would have been aware of what was onboard even if that remains in transit onboard the aircraft and is not destined for LGG itself. Even if the weather conditions were so poor that ground handling was completely impossible (which seems very questionable) the aircraft could have been left powered & heating could have been provided. There's always a way to deal with situations like this. I suppose underpaid & overworked staff in LGG had a complete brain fart, signed off for the day and forgot all about it until it was too late. Time to look into those SOPs again.

TonyClifton wrote:

I’ve never seen a NOTOC for live animals at any of the carriers I’ve flown for, unsure others.

Should normally be reported to the crew on the NOTOC as other special load with a loading position & temperature advisory. Honestly curious to know how your carriers have handled this and made sure you were informed about their location & temperature requirements ?

DALCE wrote:

Well, the cockpit crew signs of the NOTOC, so for sure they are aware of AVI being loaded on the flight(s).

What do NOTOC and AVI stand for?

maveman wrote:

Probably only my 2nd post in over a decade (...).

maveman
Posts: 5
Joined: 7 years ago

NOTOC -Notice to Captain
AVI - live animal code. My carrier has AV1, AV2, and AV3 for specific types of live animals.

N757KW

9MMPQ wrote:

TonyClifton wrote:

I’ve never seen a NOTOC for live animals at any of the carriers I’ve flown for, unsure others.

Should normally be reported to the crew on the NOTOC as other special load with a loading position & temperature advisory. Honestly curious to know how your carriers have handled this and made sure you were informed about their location & temperature requirements ?

Typically on the performance data, it’ll have an annotation for live animals.

MartijnNL wrote:

maveman wrote:

Probably only my 2nd post in over a decade (...).

maveman
Posts: 5
Joined: 7 years ago

Thanks. I was so concerned that he wasn't 100% accurate. Probably why he posts sparingly right there. This site...

These deaths were completely unnecessary. Carriers and companies that engage in this type of incompetent behaviour should be banned from carrying animals. Penalties should be levied. In some countries criminal charges are possible under cruelty to animal laws. Forgetting or doing nothing is not an excuse.

To all airmen. Be diligent when carrying animals . Check the final NOTOC. I’ve seen situations where animals were placed in a different hold than on the first NOTOC. If not caught heat would not have been sufficient.

9MMPQ wrote:

TonyClifton wrote:

I’ve never seen a NOTOC for live animals at any of the carriers I’ve flown for, unsure others.

Should normally be reported to the crew on the NOTOC as other special load with a loading position & temperature advisory. Honestly curious to know how your carriers have handled this and made sure you were informed about their location & temperature requirements ?

A large number of North American carriers only issue a NOTOC for Dangerous Goods. Live Animal information is usually included in the remarks of the performance data.

Horrific horrific horrific. Those poor souls. Makes me sick when I think about the contempt we show other innocent brings we share our planet with.