Passengers heading to China aboard a recent United Airlines flight faced an unexpected travel headache after a pilot’s forgotten passport prompted their return to the United States.
Flight UA198 from Los Angeles to Shanghai was over the Pacific Ocean on Saturday afternoon when it made a U-turn and headed to San Francisco, tracking data showed.
United confirmed on Tuesday to AFP in an email that the plane, a Boeing 787 with 270 people onboard, made a stop in San Francisco “as the pilot did not have their passport onboard”.
Reminds me of a 24 hour round bus trip from the Netherlands to Paris in about 1989 when the person sitting next to me asked if you needed a passport to cross the border.
“Yes … you need a passport … for both borders, both ways.”
“Oh. Uhm. I need to go and get it then.”
30 minutes later we finally departed.
(This was before the Euro and open borders.)
Maybe he was a time traveller