A United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to China was forced to make an unexpected U-turn after one of the pilots boarded the aircraft without a passport. Flight UA 198 ended up landing in Shanghai almost six hours later than planned due to the pilot’s blunder, CNN reported.
Flight 198 took off from LAX at 2 pm on Saturday with 257 passengers and 13 crew members on board, travelling northwest across the Pacific Ocean to Shanghai. When the pilot realised he didn’t have his passport, the aircraft turned back and eventually touched down in San Francisco at approximately 5 pm local time, according to the FlightAware website.
It departed for China again later in the evening with a fresh crew. The flight took off at 9 pm and eventually arrived in Shanghai almost six hours behind schedule.
Yang Shuhan, a passenger, told CNN that she overheard the pilot’s “very frustrated voice” on the intercom admitting that he “forgot (his) passport.”
United Airlines reportedly provided the more than 250 passengers on board with “meal vouchers and compensation.” Yang said she was given two $30 meal tickets upon arrival in San Francisco, which she used to purchase food at a Japanese eatery at the airport.
She also submitted a compensation claim on United’s website, and she was told that she would hear back from them in 14 business days.
United Airlines issued a statement following the incident and said that the “pilot did not have their passport onboard” and that they “arranged for a new crew” to transport the customers to their location.
Singapore-based Endau Analytics founder Shukor Yusof told CNN that the incident was “quite embarrassing.” He added that the blunder demonstrates “a lack of discipline” and is “unacceptable” for a major airline like United.
The passengers on the return flight, UA 199 from Shanghai to Los Angeles, were also impacted by the delayed arrival of the inbound aircraft UA 198.
In a similar incident last March, a cabin crew member of Pakistan International Airlines was fined $200 by Canadian authorities for flying from Islamabad to Toronto without a passport.
She was on duty on flight PK-781, headed for Toronto, and she had to board the flight using the general declaration paperwork because she forgot to bring her passport.