Well, atleast it wasn't for mechanical reasons.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/it-s-quite-embarrassing-china-bound-united-flight-turns-around-after-pilot-forgets-passport/ar-AA1BzIHI?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=4caeea5e9cd64652b180687e1e0f57c9&ei=12A United Airlines Boeing 787 jetliner flying from Los Angeles to Shanghai had to turn around last weekend after it was discovered one of the pilots had taken off without a passport, the airline told CNN in a statement.
Flight UA 198 departed LAX at around 2 p.m. Saturday, March 22, with 257 passengers and 13 crew onboard and headed northwest over the Pacific Ocean, bound for China’s largest city. About two hours later, the plane turned around and was redirected to San Francisco, where it landed around 5 p.m. local time, according to the website FlightAware.
“The pilot did not have their passport onboard,” United said in the statement. “We arranged for a new crew to take our customers to their destination that evening. Customers were provided with meal vouchers and compensation.”
The flight with the new crew took off around 9 p.m. and landed in Shanghai about six hours behind schedule.
Yang Shuhan, a Chinese passenger on board, told CNN that she heard the pilot’s “very frustrated voice” over the intercom, saying he “forgot (his) passport.” “It’s quite embarrassing (for United),” Shukor Yusof, founder of Singapore-based Endau Analytics, an advisory firm that focuses on the aviation industry, told CNN.
He added that the mistake is “unacceptable” for a global airline like United and it shows “a lack of discipline.”
United is one of the world’s largest carriers, flying 140 million people to more than 300 destinations across six continents each year, according to the company’s website.
Shukor noted that the “absent-mindedness” reflected in the incident could cost the airline dearly, taking into account the costs of things like the jet fuel they had to dump before diverting and compensation for the passengers.
While a series of plane crashes involving US carriers in recent months has raised security concerns, the latest incident with United is “more of a protocol issue,” said Shukor.
Just last week, an Orthodox Jewish passenger filed a lawsuit against the airline, alleging a United pilot forcibly removed him from a lavatory while he was experiencing constipation, exposing his genitalia to others during a flight from Tulum, Mexico, to Houston.
Meanwhile, a New Jersey mother blasted United for asking her to remove her “medically complex” son’s breathing tube ahead of the plane’s takeoff. Her TikTok video about the incident has garnered more than 1.3 million views.
