Passengers on a flight were struck with an almighty stink from a tiny dog after the owner let her chihuahua out of its crate and it pooped on an airline seat.

Travellers on the United Airlines flight from Portland to Denver said a woman’s chihuahua caused chaos on the plane when she let her fussy pup out of its crate during the flight on Monday and it left a little present on the furniture.

Passengers were struck by a foul “poop” smell, said one man, who identified himself only as Nick. A pregnant woman sitting directly behind the epicentre of the stench was forced to hit the call button for a flight attendant to help.

Nick says he and the pregnant lady, seated in the back of the plane, searched for the source of the unbearable smell. “I turned on my phone light, and that’s when I realised the dog was out. And we were debating was it her [the owner] or was it the dog,” Nick said.

“She mentioned earlier, when I was first seated, that she hadn’t taken it to the bathroom during the airport. I think they have relief centres so it probably was cooped up in the cage the whole time,” Nick said to WGN-TV.

Flight attendants on their way to assist the pregnant woman said they had found dog faeces on the edge of an aisle seat. But the lady refused to move with her foul-smelling chihuahua or take responsibility for cleaning the nasty mess, another passenger claimed.

“The lady was reluctant to move or to deal with it, and the flight attendants were slow to come,” another passenger named Burton Bix told WGN. “They cleaned it eventually. They were wearing hazmat-type clothes, and they cleaned the seat around it.”

Passengers around the dog poop were unable to switch seats to escape the noxious poop zone as the plane was in full flight. United has clear rules about bringing pets onto its flights.

Read the full story originally published on mirror.co.uk