Mystery death of giant rabbit on United Airlines flight

  • 26/04/2017
(Getty)
(Getty)

Scandal-hit United Airlines is investigating the mysterious death of a healthy giant rabbit destined for a celebrity owner while on a flight from Britain to Chicago.

Simon, a 10-month-old continental giant rabbit, was already 3ft long and according to his breeder Annette Edwards, was likely to outgrow his record-setting dad Darius at 4ft 4in, The Sun reports.

But his big future has been snuffed out after he was found dead in the cargo hold of a Boeing 767-300 which landed at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

Ms Edwards, from Stoulton, Worcs, is adamant Simon was in perfect health, having had a check-up three hours before the flight.

"He was fit as a fiddle. I've sent rabbits round the world, nothing like this happened," she told The Sun.

She says the unidentified celebrity buyer was distraught at what happened.

Both Ms Edwards and the buyer are launching legal action against the airline which has already been dealing with a string of public relations disasters.

Earlier this month, the airline came under intense public backlash after Dr David Dao was forcefully dragged off an overbooked domestic flight.

The airline apologised and refunded all of those on board.

In late March, United also bore the brunt of social media outrage after a woman live-tweeted a situation in which two young girls were barred from a flight for wearing leggings.

In a statement, the airline said it was "reviewing" Simon's death.

Newshub.