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."
