Van Essen said once the handlers got to the gate, they received a call from the terminal notifying them that Gale was gone. The handlers were asked to board the plane while officials searched for the dog, Van Essen told Channel 2. Success! Gayle has been found and is back her owner’s hands. Kudos to #ATL’s Ops team for its effort in bringing her back.... pic.twitter.com/N0ukM5Z4Qn — Atlanta Airport (@ATLairport) March 26, 2019 “She’s lost,” he said. “She doesn’t understand, she misses us and she’s all alone in a big airport. It’s a terrible ordeal.” In a statement, KLM confirmed to Channel 2 that “a dog managed to break out of its cage as it was being loaded into the cargo of flight KL-622 from Atlanta to Amsterdam on March 23.” Gayle update: The show dog who apparently escaped her crate at #ATL Saturday, was spotted in an airfield thicket by ATL Ops teams this morning. A baited trap has been set and is now being monitored. pic.twitter.com/3ol5dKtQnv — Atlanta Airport (@ATLairport) March 26, 2019 In other news:<doc-sep>"We're really missing a family member," the dog's owner said before the reunion. The prize-winning show dog that disappeared in one of the world's busiest airports for three days after being checked in for a flight has been found. Gale, a pure-bred American Staffordshire terrier whose owners live in Amsterdam, has been located and reunited with her family, the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport announced on social media Tuesday. The dog was being shown in the United States by her handlers and had one final event in Louisville, Kentucky, before she was scheduled to fly home Saturday. It was not immediately clear where Gale was found. A spokesperson for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines confirmed to ABC News on Tuesday that the dog was flown home to her owners. Gale's handlers had brought her and another dog to the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Saturday, where they checked in for their KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight and went through security. Not long after the handlers boarded the Amsterdam-bound plane in Atlanta, they were informed that Gale's kennel was found empty when crews went to load her crate onto the aircraft. The handlers immediately called her owners. "Me and my wife completely panicked," Gale's owner, Floris Van Essen, told ABC News in a telephone interview from the Netherlands’ capital on Monday. "We were out of our minds. You can imagine it's horrific to hear that a dog is gone and nobody knows where she is." Van Essen said they've been in touch with the airport, the airline as well as the baggage handler, but being thousands of miles away and in different time zones "isn't helping." "There's a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness because there's nothing you can do," he added. Authorities and airport officials, including wildlife biologists on staff, had been trying to track down the dog ever since. "The dog somehow got out of the crate and is now running around the airfield," Andrew Gobeil, a spokesperson for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, told ABC News in an interview Monday. "We have about 4,600 acres of field out there, from the airfield and from the woods area. So we're looking throughout the entire airport." "We're optimistic that we'll find Gale," Gobeil added. "We understand how important the dog is to the family structure when we want to make sure that we get Gale home safely." A spokesperson for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines told ABC News the dog "broke out of its cage as it was being loaded into the cargo" of the plane. Gale's owners described the dog as "friendly" and "loving," but said she is likely scared and skittish in an unknown area. "We're really missing a family member," Van Essen told ABC News. "We don't have any children, the dogs are our children. Her brother lives here, her mother lives here, and we really want her back home safe." ABC News' Jeffrey Cook, Nicholas Coulson, Julia Jacobo, Janice McDonald and Marissa Parra contributed to this report.<doc-sep>A prize-winning show dog went missing at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Saturday night, as she was set to fly back home to Amsterdam. Gale, a 22-month-old pure-bred American Staffordshire terrier, was set to be loaded onto a KLM flight bound for Europe when she reportedly got loose from her crate. According to a Facebook post, staff at the airport had left the dog alone in her crate when she escaped. SENIOR DOG GETS 'SEEING-EYE PUPPY' AFTER LOSING EYESIGHT Floris van Essen, Gale’s owner, said the dog was secure in her crate after going through security. However, 10 minutes before boarding the flight, those responsible for handling Gale told airport officials that they had lost her. It has not been reported how the dog managed to escape her crate or where the crate was when she got out. Van Essen was told to board the flight while airport staff continued their search for the dog. "As you can imagine, this is just a horrible ordeal," van Essen, who returned to the Netherlands, told 11Alive in a message. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP In a statement to Fox News, a spokesperson for Hartsfield-Jackson airport said the search for Gale is “ongoing.” “Our Airside Operations team – which includes two wildlife biologists – has been engaged in the search throughout our 47-hundred acre campus. Our various partners, including the FAA, CBP, and airlines, are aware and monitoring the airfield.” KLM airlines told Fox News in a statement that they are working with the airport in the search. "A dog broke out of its cage as it was being loaded into the cargo of KL622 on March 23. The dog’s owner has been notified. KLM expresses its sincerest regrets and is actively working with the Atlanta Airport to search for the dog," the statement read. Gale is microchipped and was last seen wearing a pink collar. The owners request anyone who sees the dog to contact them via Facebook. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS This is not the first time a pet has been lost at the airport. Last April, a cat escaped from her handler’s arms at JFK airport in Queens, N.Y. She was found a week later. More recently, in August, an emotional support dog went missing also at JFK airport after LATAM Airlines failed to load him on the correct flight. According to reports, the Labradoodle was taken home by an airline staff member after missing the flight. Once at the employee’s home, the dog escaped and was not found.<doc-sep>
A prize-winning dog missing at Atlanta’s airport has been found, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said Tuesday. Gale, a pure-bred American Staffordshire Terrier, was boarding a flight Saturday at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta when she escaped, airport officials said. The 22-month-old canine was with her handlers, heading back to Amsterdam — where her owners live — after competing at an event in Louisville, Kentucky, when security found her kennel empty. The handlers checked Gale and another dog in for their KLM flight and went through security. Shortly after the handlers boarded the plane Saturday afternoon, security informed them that Gale was missing. The handlers immediately called her owners. Success! Gayle has been found and is back her owner’s hands. Kudos to #ATL’s Ops team for its effort in bringing her back.... pic.twitter.com/N0ukM5Z4Qn — Atlanta Airport (@ATLairport) March 26, 2019 "KLM is glad to report that Gale has been found, and is in the process of being flown home to its owner,” the airline said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. "KLM thanks all involved in the search, including the Atlanta airport team." KLM said in a statement earlier Tuesday that after they "conducted a thorough investigation," it was determined that the airport staff "improperly secured" the cage and that is how the dog was able to get loose. The Atlanta airport also tweeted Tuesday afternoon that the show dog had been found. Earlier in the day, it said that the dog was spotted in an airfield thicket in the morning. Wildlife biologist Jeff Miller said that the dog is in excellent condition. Officials said the animal was found in what is called the rock quarry between the airport’s center complex and two runways, where it may have been seeking water and cover. Gale, a 22-month-old American Staffordshire terrier, has gone missing before flying home from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. Courtesy of Floris Van Essen Before the dog was found, Andrew Gobeil, a spokesperson for Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, said that the entire airport has been on alert since Gale went missing. "As soon as we heard about it, we started the search through our more than 4,600-acre airport," he said Tuesday. Gobeil said Gale was last spotted Monday around 3:30 a.m. Steven Boyd, wildlife biologist for the airport, said at a press conference Tuesday after the dog was found that dogs escaping are a rare occurrence. “It’s great. It's such a relief that both the dog is happy, we're happy, the flying public is happy,” Boyd said. “It was a concern of ours for both the flying public and the dog. We're glad the dog is safe now and off the air field.”