California man, pet opossum booted from JetBlue flight, were stranded for days in Texas

Abigail Rosenthal | Austin Audience Hub

Show Caption Hide Caption Opossum and owner stranded for days after being removed from flight An opossum in a pink pet carrier and her owner were removed from a JetBlue flight, leaving the two stranded in Austin, Texas for four days.

It’s not a bird or cat or dog on a plane ... It was an opossum in a pink pet carrier, and she and her owner were stranded in Austin, Texas, for four days after being removed from a JetBlue flight, reports Abigail Rosenthal from the USA TODAY Network.

Gerald Tautenhahn and his opossum Zatara flew from Long Beach, California, to visit Tautenhahn’s mother for Thanksgiving, according to Fox 7 Austin and the New York Post. Tautenhahn said he made preparations to take Zatara on the plane.

“We did all of our homework about a month in advance,” Tautenhahn told Fox 7 Austin. “I called the Department of Transportation, cleared it with them. Cleared it with JetBlue, they said it was fine.”

Tautenhahn and Zatara were booted from their JetBlue flight after a 30-minute delay and told they wouldn’t be able to fly, according to Tautenhahn’s Instagram account for Zatara.

He eventually bought a return flight home through United Airlines instead. Tautenhahn and Zatara are now back home in California.

JetBlue issued a statement to Fox 7: “JetBlue gladly accepts small dogs and cats only in an approved pet carrier. On the customer’s return trip, our crewmembers in Austin witnessed the opossum come out of its carrier and saw that it was not a cat or dog. The crewmembers informed the customer that the opossum would not be able to travel on the flight and worked to assist the customer with his options.”

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