An American Airlines passenger found a dead rat in her luggage after flight and claims she was told to burn the bag because of bubonic plague concerns

Merry Cannon

The dead rat Merry Cannon found in her bag after a trip to Europe.

• An American Airlines passenger found a dead rat in her checked luggage after a trip to Europe.
• Cannon said in a Facebook post that the airline didn't respond to her for at least 41 days after she "called & emailed numerous times" and that her county's health department told her to burn the bag due to concerns about the bubonic plague.
• An American Airlines representative told Business Insider that Cannon was given $1,600 as a result of the incident, but Cannon told Inc. the bag and the clothing inside it were worth more.

An American Airlines passenger found a dead rat in her checked luggage after a trip to Europe.

Merry Cannon told Inc. she was joining her husband on a business trip to Europe when a series of delays, cancellations, and missed flights disrupted their plans. Once they arrived in Belgium, they reportedly were told their luggage was still in the US. It arrived near the end of their trip, and once they returned to Arkansas, Cannon noticed an unpleasant smell coming from her bags. She told Inc. it smelled "like a dead body."

An American Airlines customer service representative reportedly told Cannon the bag may have developed mold after being left in the rain before it reached Europe, but Cannon told Inc. she hadn't noticed a similar smell before she was back in the US. The representative then reportedly said the luggage may have been exposed to waste from the lavatory on the flight home and told Cannon the airline would only compensate her for damaged luggage if she attempted to wash its contents and could prove her efforts weren't effective.

Once Cannon returned home, she reportedly started washing clothes from the bag and noticed the smell didn't leave. Then she found the rat.

"I screamed, ran inside, started washing my hands over and over. I was just crying," she told Inc.

Cannon said in a Facebook post that American didn't respond to her for at least 41 days after she "called & emailed numerous times" and that her county's health department told her to burn the bag because of concerns about the bubonic plague.

An American Airlines representative told Business Insider that Cannon was given $1,600 as a result of the incident, but Cannon told Inc. the bag and the clothing inside it were worth more.

"We have apologized and are not aware of any similar issues of a rat making its way into a checked bag before," an airline representative told Business Insider. "While we are unable to determine if the issue occurred in the United States or overseas, we did apologize to the customer, and they were compensated earlier this month."