'Lost Dog' delays Memphis flight |

(WMC-TV) - A Delta Airlines flight filled with Memphis-bound passengers was delayed at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport as baggage handlers searched for a lost dog.

Delta Flight 1468 was packed with passengers when the captain announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, we've delayed our departure because we're trying to locate a dog."

It was the last flight into Memphis on Friday night, September 21.

Brenda Collin Snyder, the dog's owner, said she was mortified when Delta's flight crew revealed her four and a half year old bull terrier mix, Buster, was not in his kennel in the cargo hold.

"My dog is my baby, " she told Action News 5.

Ms. Snyder said she checked Buster into his kennel and the canine flew in the cargo hold on a Friday flight from Aruba to Atlanta.

Ms. Snyder says upon arrival in Atlanta, she went to the airline counter to inquire as to whether she could walk her dog during a layover until the Memphis flight that was scheduled to take off at 10:02pm EST.

She says the airline told her she could not have access to Buster, who was scheduled to be shipped as cargo in his kennel on Memphis bound Flight 1468.

Boarding the flight, Ms. Snyder said, "I asked a flight attendant to ask the captain to make sure Buster was aboard the plane. That's when they discovered he was missing."

Luckily, a Delta cargo expert was aboard Flight 1468 and began a dogged search for the missing pooch.

"A guy named Dexter started calling his cargo connections, " Ms. Snyder said, "And Dexter found Buster. He was already in Memphis!"

Delta apparently sent Buster to Memphis on an earlier flight.

The Buster search delayed Flight 1468 for 35 minutes, but when the dog finally was located already in Memphis, the flight was delayed further because it had lost its take-off position.

Passengers aboard Flight 1468 must have been pet people because no one complained about the delay.

"Can you imagine a plane full of people, " Ms. Snyder wondered aloud, "Everyone waiting was so nice."

Ms. Snyder says a Memphis based Delta baggage handler stayed with Buster after he arrived at Memphis International, hours before his owner.

Snyder says Buster was born in Hawaii and has moved each time her husband, an oil company worker, was transferred.  The couple and their hound have moved from Hawaii to Huntington Beach, CA, then Aruba and now Memphis.

"I can't believe they held a plane for my dog," Ms. Snyder said.