The Daily Populous Wednesday March 26th, 2025 night edition
Authored by nbcnews.com and submitted by TortoiseWrath

A United Airlines flight headed to Shanghai, China, had to turn around over the weekend after the pilot forgot to bring a passport, the airline company said.

The mishap happened Saturday afternoon on United Flight 198 from Los Angeles International Airport to Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Data on FlightAware.com showed the flight took off on time just before 2 p.m. but was diverted to San Francisco, landing just after 5 p.m. There were 257 passengers and 13 crew members onboard.

United said in a brief statement that the pilot on the flight did not have their passport, so the plane had to return to California, where a new crew would take passengers to China. The plane left Saturday evening, about six hours behind schedule.

The airline said passengers were given meal vouchers and compensation for the inconvenience.

70125 on March 25th, 2025 at 21:36 UTC »

I hate the airlines as much as anyone but honestly a 6 hour total delay is quite a good outcome for what could have been a much worse shit show. Almost not even newsworthy.

eyebrowshampoo on March 25th, 2025 at 14:10 UTC »

Imagine that stomach drop and heart thud the moment they realized. I might have thrown up.

newswall-org on March 25th, 2025 at 14:02 UTC »

More on this subject from other reputable sources:

Straits Times (B): United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai turns back after pilot forgets passport CNN.com (C+): Plane turns around after pilot forgets passport Independent (C+): United flight forced to divert after pilot realises they forgot their passport LoyaltyLobby (C): Crazy: United Airlines Flight Diverted Because Second Pilot In One Week Forgot His Passport

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