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An Air Canada flight was diverted after the pilot realised that a cargo hold heating unit failed, threatening the life of a pet dog.

Simba, a seven-year-old French bulldog, was riding in the cargo hold where - without heating - temperatures can become very cold at high altitude.

The Sunday flight from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Toronto, Canada, and was diverted to Frankfurt, Germany.

About 200 travellers were delayed by about 75 minutes.

"The overall reaction was positive, particularly once people understood the dog was in potential danger but safe as a result of the diversion," said Peter Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for AirCanada.

Mr Fitzpatrick said that, while the heating unit is not critical to completing a journey, the pilot chose to divert the flight just before it was to head over the Atlantic Ocean to protect the life of the animal on board.

German Kontorovich, Simba's owner, was thankful for pilot's quick thinking.

"It's my dog, it's like my child. It's everything to me," Mr Kontorovich told the Canadian news website CityNews.