Just two days ago a United Airlines flight going to Shanghai had to make an emergency return to San Francisco. The upset had only just dawned on the pilot that he had forgotten his passport. Flight UA 198 departed Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) under sunny skies around 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 22. At the time of the flight, there were 257 passengers and 13 crew members on board.
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger aircraft flew northwest over the Pacific Ocean, on its way to China’s largest metropolis. At that moment the pilot realized that he had made a mistake. Yang Shuhan, a third spouse of Chinese passenger, came back from her business trip a bit of dashing concerning. The uncertainty put a monkey wrench in her federally supported travel plans that next week.
“I appreciated the pilot’s honesty about the delay,” Shuhan stated. As she told us, it definitely put a wrench into her working plans on that Monday.
During the flight, the pilot’s voice over the intercom was said by passengers to sound “very frustrated.” His announcement came with the very sad news that, “I lost (his) passport.” This forced the flight crew to make a u-turn and return to San Francisco.
The plane touched down at San Francisco International Airport shortly before 5 p.m. local time. A new crew chewed down the same trail the old one had just left. After a short pause, the flight took off once more around 9 p.m., continuing on its trip to Shanghai.
Yang Shuhan was still pretty chill about the whole thing. She recognized that no one is perfect, but pointed out that the error in question was a major one.
In the end, the flight arrived in Shanghai nearly six hours late. The act attracted significant response from the public on social media, including one post that was liked by more than 10,000 people. Many commenters echoed Shuhan’s sentiments, with one unnamed passenger stating, “How could someone mess up this badly at work?”
