United Airlines revealed in a statement with CNN that their 787 aircraft flying from Los Angeles to China had to take an unexpected turn back around after it had been discovered that one of the attending pilots had taken off without one of the most valuable essentials to bring for identification when travelling— his passport.
Flight 198 was set to depart from the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) at 2:00 PM last Saturday, carrying a total of 257 passengers and 13 crew members onboard. The craft was said to be headed northwest over the Pacific Ocean as it was bound for arrival in Shanghai.
It was reported that 2 hours into the supposedly long flight, the plane had unexpectedly turned around and headed to San Francisco, landing around 5:00 PM, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
While there are yet to be reports on the pilot’s identification and response to this occurring offense and major delay, United Airlines instead released in a statement, “The pilot did not have their passport onboard,” adding, “We arranged for a new crew to take our customers to their destination that evening. Customers were provided with meal vouchers and compensation.”
A new crew was eventually assigned to take over and took off around 9:00 PM, finally landing in the main destination in what was noted to be six hours behind schedule.
Adding onto this case, it is apparent that this was not the first incident where a pilot of the same airline company left their passport behind, yet again triggering more diversions and longer delays for passengers. This, however, was dated last March 14 for flight UA857 with aircraft Boeing 777. The flight carried 348 passengers and 16 crew members before they too had to turn back around.
Social media users on Reddit left their frustrations in a thread on the matter, and one of them brought to light that United described the situation to them in a message as, “an unexpected crew-related issue requiring a new crew.”
The message continued, “Once they arrive, we’ll get you back on your way to Shanghai as soon as possible,” closing with, “We sincerely apologize for this disruption and appreciate your patience.”
One user named simplegrocery3 couldn’t help but comment, “Is this the same guy who forgot his passport on March 14?!” Commenters concluded that it was unlikely to be the same pilot, but the two are now accused of having given passengers “flightmares” in their major oversight.
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