An Oregon family was devastated when their dog died of overheating while waiting to depart an Alaska Airlines flight from Oahu, Hawaii.

“Hawaii is not dog friendly,” Angie Engelgau told KGW8 as she reflected on the tragedy.

The freak accident happened Sunday as she was waiting for her flight home from Honolulu to Oregon with her husband Gary, their four-year-old French bulldog Frank, his sister Charlie and Fawn, their 15-year-old beagle-chihuahua. They had reportedly just moved to Oregon from the Aloha State and were excited to start their new life.

“We bring everything and our pets – and everyone,” said Gary, who grew up in Portland.

However, when the Oregonians arrived at Honolulu's Daniel K. Inouye International Airport at 10 a.m., temperatures had soared to over 80 degrees Fahrenheit, which they felt was putting a strain on their dogs, who were housed in kennels.

They asked if they could take their animals out of their crates, but staff denied their request. Angie claimed this was because animals are not allowed to leave their crates – except in the pet toilet area – which consists of indoor and outdoor areas.

It is still unclear whether pets will be allowed out of their cages, but an airport spokesperson claimed that the airport “would not restrict access for this specific request.”

Despite this alleged policy, the Engelgaus claimed that staff refused their requests to allow the dogs into outdoor areas.

“We are just sitting at the gate waiting for our flight,” said Angie. “He [Frank] is just panting and we kept asking the crew at the counter if we could take her out.”

Left with no other choice, the couple secretly took the two out of their kennels for a 40-minute break, gave the thirsty dogs water and kept them in the shade.

When they finally boarded the plane, they asked Alaska Airlines flight attendants if they could remove the dehydrated dogs from their cages, but the staff denied their request. According to AA policy, pets must remain in their cages in the boarding area and during taxiing, takeoff and landing.

The desperate dog owners tried to cool their bulldog with ice, but it was too late – Frank was dead.

Gary said the pup didn't move even when he shook him, and that his “eyes were open” when he pulled him out of the carrier. “His tongue was hanging out a little bit and he wasn't moving or breathing. That was all,” the grieving dog dad lamented.

A tearful Angie attributed the animal's death to the fact that they had not let him out of his kennel, even though they could see that he was clearly in “distress.”

In light of Frank's tragic end, the devastated woman calls on airlines to “make a change,” explaining: “I want to find the human I need to find and create a law that gives dogs a chance of survival while traveling.”

In a statement, Alaska Airlines said they care deeply about the well-being of their four-legged passengers and were “saddened by the reported loss of this guest's pet.”

However, they stressed that they had strictly followed the airline's pet protocol and taken special care of the animals during the flight.

The Engelgaus described their deceased dog not as “the smartest dog,” but still as a “good dog.”

This is not the first time a dog has died on a flight between the Hawaiian Islands and the US mainland.

In 2022, a Hawaii couple announced they would sue Hawaiian Airlines after their one-year-old English pit bull died on a flight from Las Vegas back to Honolulu.

Although pet deaths during flights are extremely rare, unfortunately they still occur.

Between January 2015 and December 2020, a total of 112 pet deaths were reported to the Department of Transportation by airlines, over 40% of which occurred on board United Airlines.