NEW DELHI: On her way to Singapore for a new job, Preeti Varma was about to board her Jet Airways flight from IGI Airport on Saturday when she was given some shocking news. Her cat, James Dean , who was to travel on the same flight, had died.

The attendents said James — so named under the mistaken belief that she was a tomcat — had escaped from her cage while being transported to the aircraft. CCTV footage showed James came under the wheels of a vehicle operating in the tarmac.

Jet issued an apology on a social networking site after Varma and her friends took up the issue. Nobody from the airline had contacted her personally till Monday night.

"I was waiting to board my flight when two personnel from Jet came to me and said the cat's cage was empty. I was completely stunned and only when I asked them what they meant, they replied that she was no more," Varma told TOI.

"While I broke down and sobbed, the two just kept looking at me. Another passenger and her daughter came to console me and offer me water. After that the staff actually asked me if I wanted to board my flight as it was ready to depart," she said.

She waited at the boarding gate for an hour before she was approached by another Jet staffer, who asked her to surrender her bottle of duty-free liquor. After another hour, someone escorted her back to security check where James' body was handed over to her. "They then tried to force me to leave but I started yelling and demanded to see the CCTV footage of the accident. James was in an IATA approved cage which has a complicated locking mechanism. I had additionally tied the door with some wire. The airline claimed that she was agitated and managed to push her way out which I refuse to believe. I was grieving for my pet and waited for another almost two hours and suffered more callous treatment before I was shown the footage," she said.

Later, when Varma was taken back to the terminal to be given another ticket for the evening flight, she said a staff member was openly joking about James' death.

Jet Airways officials said they would not comment on the issue on Monday but its apology to Varma on a social networking site read: "Jet Airways sincerely regrets the accidental demise of a pet cat which was accepted as baggage to be flown on 9W18 from Delhi to Singapore on March 23. A detailed investigation conducted by Jet Airways commercial and vigilance team confirms that the pet was accepted as per standard operating procedures in terms of caging and handling. The pet seemed visibly agitated while the cage was being X-rayed and escaped from the custody of the guest to take refuge under the roller bed of the X-ray machine but was retrieved, caged and locked by the guest."