AIRPLANE
OPERATIONS
MANUAL
LOADING
REVISION 30
1-07-90
Page
1
Code
01
LIVE ANIMALS TRANSPORTATION
This section presents the general conditions for live animal
transportation in the EMB-145 and EMB-135 Class C Baggage
Compartment. Live animals transportation on aircraft equipped with
Class D Baggage Compartments is not recommended.
The main references that regulate and state methods and procedures
to handling, appropriate packaging, legal aspects for animal
transportation, etc. are the IATA Live Animal Regulations and SAE
AIR1600.
GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS
Generically, animals should be protected from stressing situations, like
excessive noise, solar radiation, draft, high or low temperatures.
The containers should be appropriate for the type of animal to be
transported, as recommended by IATA Live Animal Regulations.
Animals shall be handled with great care, to minimize the stress
associated to handling. While waiting for the shipment, animals should
be maintained in a waiting room with temperature control and
protected from noise and draught. The adverse climatic conditions
could cause additional stress to the animals. The ambient should be
dark to make the animals more calm and comfortable while waiting for
shipment. Animals of different species, specially which are natural
enemies, such as cats and dogs, must be kept apart one from another.
On the other hand, animals of the same species would be more calm if
kept together.
Animals shall be loaded just before departure and unloaded just after
arrival, in order to minimize the exposition to high or low temperatures
on ground, where the baggage compartment ventilation is not
completely effective. Specially in the hot season, it should be
preferable to schedule the animal shipment for the night period, when
the temperatures are lower than during the day. For the more sensitive
animals, such as little birds, that would not resist to high temperatures,
this is an important requirement. In addition, these animals would be
too susceptible to low temperatures achieved during long cruise flights,
so it could be necessary to limit the flight cruise altitude to reduce the
temperature drop in the baggage compartment and protect them.