By Abiola Olawale
In a bizarre turn of events, a United Airlines flight bound for China was forced to make an abrupt U-turn back to the United States after the pilot realized mid-flight that they had forgotten their passport.
It was gathered that flight UA198 from Los Angeles to Shanghai was out over the Pacific Ocean on Saturday afternoon when it made a u-turn and headed to San Francisco.
The New Diplomat reports that international aviation regulations require all crew members to carry valid passports for cross-border travel.
The Airline in a terse statement on Tuesday confirmed the incident, stating that the plane landed safely back in the US, where a replacement pilot with proper documentation was arranged to resume the journey.
The statement reads in part: “We arranged for a new crew to take our customers to their destination that evening,” the company said, adding that “customers were provided with meal vouchers and compensation,” without specifying.
