A woman claims she was removed from a United Airlines flight last month after staffers refused her request to move a cat seated nearby, it was reported on Thursday.

Donna Wiegel boarded a flight in Baltimore bound for Chicago on the afternoon of March 4 of this year, according to NBC Chicago.

All was fine until Wiegel noticed that a fellow passenger at the gate was boarding with her cat.

Wiegel notified airline staff that she needed to be seated at a distance from the cat due to health reasons.

'I have a lot of respiratory problems and asthma,' she said. 'And cats are a trigger that I have to avoid at all costs.'

Donna Wiegel (above) boarded a flight in Baltimore bound for Chicago on the afternoon of March 4 of this year

All was fine until Wiegel noticed that a fellow passenger at the gate was boarding with her cat. Wiegel notified airline staff that she needed to be seated at a distance from the cat due to health reasons

After boarding, Wiegel says that the woman with the cat was seated just a few rows away.

'I said, "Oh, that is way too close",' she said.

So the flight attendants told her to swap with another passenger in the back of the plane.

Wiegel initially refused.

'I still balked at that and said why do I have to move? Why can't the cat move?' she said.

After Wiegel swapped seats with another passenger, as she had been told, she was then confronted by three crew United crew members who asked her to leave the plane. A United Airlines passenger jet is seen landing above at Chicago's O'Hare Airport on April 11, 2017

'We can't move the cat,' she says she was told.

After Wiegel swapped seats with another passenger, as she had been told, she was then confronted by three crew United crew members.

'They said you'll have to come with us - the crew is not comfortable having you on the flight,' she recalled.

'I've never been kicked off a plane, and I was just so stunned that this would happen to me.'

When she reached the gate area, she was met by TSA agents.

Airline officials told her that she was removed because they feared she would have a medical emergency on the flight.

Wiegel said that the removal from the plane and the treatment she received from United personnel caused her distress.

'You know, I'm hyperventilating at this point,' she said. 'Almost in a full blown asthma attack.'

After she was taken off the flight, United arranged to have her driven from the airport in Baltimore to Washington Dulles, where she was put on a United flight to Chicago at 10:30pm – five hours after she was supposed to depart.

'We're disappointed anytime a customer has an experience that doesn't measure up to their expectations,' United said in a statement.

'We reached out to Ms. Wiegel today to apologize and find out more about what happened.

'We are working with our partner on this flight, GoJet Airlines, who operated this flight, to get more details.'

United on Thursday announced that it had agreed to a financial settlement with Dr. David Dao, the Kentucky man who was filmed earlier this month being violently dragged off a flight

Earlier this week, United faced another controversy after a 'fit and healthy' giant rabbit expected to become the world's biggest died suddenly on one of its planes

United on Thursday announced that it had agreed to a financial settlement with Dr. David Dao, the Kentucky man who was filmed earlier this month being violently dragged off a flight.

The footage of Dao's removal was shared via social media, where it quickly went viral.

The reaction generated a public relations nightmare for the airline, whose commitment to customer service was called into question.

Earlier this week, United faced another controversy after a 'fit and healthy' giant rabbit expected to become the world's biggest died suddenly on one of its planes.

Simon, a ten-month-old 3ft continental giant rabbit expected to weigh more than 2st 5lbs when fully grown, was bought by a mystery US celebrity buyer who paid more than $2,500 to fly him from Heathrow to Chicago.

Had he lived Simon was expected to outgrow the world's biggest rabbit - his 4ft 4in father Darius.

But his devastated owner Annette Edwards from Stoulton in Worcester claims he died in the cargo hold of United Airlines flight from Heathrow Airport to Chicago on April 19.