Dog reunited with owner after escape on tarmac at N.C. airport

March 29 (UPI) -- A dog who escaped while being loaded onto a plane in North Carolina was reunited with his owner after an extensive search.

The dog, named Moose, was not loaded onto his owner's flight from Raleigh-Durham International Airport to Seattle on Tuesday due to "a misstep in the loading process," an Alaska Airlines spokesman told WTVD-TV.

Moose spent the night at the airport and was taken for a walk Wednesday morning before he was due to be loaded onto a replacement flight to Seattle to join his owner.

"When it was time to load [him] into the crate, [Moose] pulled away, shook loose from [his] collar and ran away," an airline spokesman told WRAL-TV.

Moose led airline employees on a chase around the tarmac, and even ended up on the taxiway at one point.

The canine ended up giving his pursuers the slip and seemingly vanished.

Alaska Airlines paid for Moose's owner to fly back to the airport Wednesday to join the search.

Airport officials said the saga had a tail-wagging ending Thursday morning when a search party consisting of airport workers, firefighters and law enforcement officers located Moose and reunited him with his owner.

Moose "is safe and sound and had a good breakfast courtesy of an RDU K9 officer," an airport spokesman said.