Dog Disappears At Atlanta Airport While Being Loaded Onto KLM Flight

A Dutch couple is distraught after their dog disappeared in an airport in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday.

Floris Van Essen told ABC News he and his wife “panicked” after learning that Gale, an American Staffordshire Terrier, apparently vanished as workers loaded her onto a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines from Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport back to the Netherlands. Gale is a prize-winning show dog and was participating in an event in Kentucky before heading home.

“We’re really missing a family member,” Van Essen told ABC. “We don’t have any children, the dogs are our children.”

Van Essen told ABC that he and his wife that staff said they found Gale’s crate empty when they went to load it onto the plane. However, KLM said in a statement sent to HuffPost that the dog had broken out of the cage while it was being loaded into cargo.

A spokeswoman for the airport told HuffPost on Tuesday afternoon that Gale was still missing as of Tuesday afternoon.

The search for Gale includes “4,600 acres of field” surrounding the airport, a spokesman told ABC. Local news station WSB-TV reported that a wildlife biologist was involved in the effort to track down Gale.

The incident comes days after a dog was found dead in the cargo hold of a KLM flight following the plane’s arrival in Los Angeles.