Virgin Australia reunites family with beloved toy dinosaur

By Alexandra Coulton

Border closures aside, Virgin Australia ended 2020 on a positive note by flying a lost toy home to its rightful owner.

On 30 December, the airline sent out a tweet advising they had found a stuffed toy dinosaur on a flight that landed in Brisbane and were searching for its owner.

“We’re sure there’s a very saur heart out there who’s missing this little one. Luckily, the Christmas spirit isn’t extinct. If you’ve recently [flown] into Brisbane & left an important member of your herd behind, let us know! They’re getting some dino-mite and care from us,” the airline tweeted, along with a photo of the toy.

The next day, Virgin followed up the tweet advising it had located the toy’s owner and booked it on the next flight to Townsville, where it could be reunited with its owner, Mia.

For those of you playing along at home, we have a rawrsome update to share. Dino’s family has been found! So we booked her on the very next flight to Townsville (in the best seat on the plane, of course) before being reunited with little Mia. pic.twitter.com/kho1T1befh

— Virgin Australia (@VirginAustralia) December 30, 2020

This wasn’t the first time Virgin Australia has returned a much-loved family member to home.

In August last year, the airline reunited a family with its pet dachshund pup after she became stranded on the other side of the world.

The pooch, whose name is Pipsqueak (!!!), was sailing around the Pacific with her owners on a four-year global sailing adventure when COVID-19 struck and owners Zoe and Guy Eilbeck and their children were forced to fly back to Australia urgently.

Over the next five months, strangers all over the United States cared for Pipsqueak, before she was able to begin her journey home to Sydney via North and South Carolina, Los Angeles, Auckland and Melbourne.

The homecoming, however, was thwarted on the final leg of the journey when cargo flights between Melbourne and Sydney were full as a consequence of COVID-19 state border restrictions, leaving the pup stranded.

Luckily, Virgin Australia came to the rescue after hearing the story and booked her on the next available service to Sydney.

Featured image source: Twitter/@virginaustralia

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airline aviation brisbane christmas dinosaur family Mia new year Plane social media stuffed toy toy twitter virgin australia