The 11-year-old girl who lost her beloved French Bulldog on a United Airlines flight this week said in an interview about the ordeal that the flight attendant insisted the dog carrier go in the overhead bin — and that she knew an animal was inside.

As CrimeOnline previously reported, a mother and her two children were on a flight from Houston to NYC Monday night when the flight attendant told the mother she had to store her dog carrier in an overhead bin because it was not properly fitting under her seat. When the flight landed three hours later, the dog was dead.

A witness told CrimeOnline that the flight attendant who gave the order said she didn’t realize there was a dog in the carrier after learning what had happened.

But 11-year-old Sophia Ceballos, who got the dog, Kokito, for her birthday, said that the flight attendant knew there was a dog in the bag.

“My mom was like, ‘It’s a dog! It’s a dog!’” Sophia told WNBC. “And (the flight attendant) said, ‘You have to put it up there.’”

Sophia’s mother Catelina appeared in the news segment video, but did not speak on camera.

The girl told the news station that she heard her dog bark a few times, but due to turbulence, they couldn’t get up to get Kokito.

“We were really worried,” Ceballos said. “He barked in the middle of the flight, and there was a lot of turbulence, so we couldn’t get him.”

By the time the flight landed, Kokito had died.

United Airlines released a statement accepting responsibility for the tragedy, and said they will be continuing to investigate the incident. The airline has not yet commented on any disciplinary action to be taken against the flight attendant.

[Feature image: Sophia and Catelina Robledo/WNBC screenshot]