Pilot forgets passport; delays international flight

A United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai diverted to San Francisco over the weekend after a pilot realised "they forgot their passport"

The Boeing 787-9 left LAX on Saturday for a 13 hours and 50 minutes flight to the Chinese city, Airlive.net reported.

The aircraft flew for about 1 hour and 45 minutes before the crew decided to turn around over Pacific.

The airline initially cited the incident as a “crew-related issue” but CNN reportedone of the pilots realized he forgot his passport. How he was able to depart LAX without a travel document was not explained, but this is the 'new" US.

The flight UA198 was diverted to San Francisco. Passengers were given $15 meal vouchers to make up for the inconvenience.

The flight with the new crew took off around 9 p.m. and landed in Shanghai about six hours behind schedule.

A replacement crew boarded the aircraft later to resume the flight to Shanghai.

United Airlines said in a statement: “Your flight diverted to San Francisco due to an unexpected crew-related issue requiring a new crew."

Unaccompanied child flown to the wrong airport

You'd expect airlines to take special care of unaccompanied children in their care.

Not always.

News emerged over the holiday that budget US carrier Spirit Airlines issued an apology after it put a six-year old unaccompanied minor on the wrong flight.

The airline admitted the boy was "incorrectly boarded", which is bulldust speak for "we stuffed up".

The boy, named Casper, was traveling from Philadelphia to be picked up by his grandmother, Maria Ramos, in Fort Myers, Florida, but instead arrived in Orlando, a city which is a four-hour drive away, Travel Mole reported.

Spirit Airlines apologised and offered to compensate Ms Ramos for the drive to Orlando. Which would seem the minimum they could do.

“I ran inside the plane to the flight attendant and I asked her, ‘Where’s my grandson? He was handed over to you at Philadelphia?'” she told a TV reporter.

The airline said: “We take the safety and responsibility of transporting all of our guests seriously and are conducting an internal investigation."

Spirit Airlines later said it had fired the gate agent responsible, US network ABC reported.

 

It is apparently not the first time an unaccompanied minor has been put on a wrong flight.

In 2019, a child was boarded on a United Airlines flight to Germany by mistake when he was supposed to be flying to Sweden, Travel Mole reported.