Two separate United Airlines flights between Chicago O’Hare and Zurich, Switzerland, were forced to make diversions on the same day on Sunday after aircrew were taken sick and injured.
The unfortunate series of events started when a pilot due to operate United Airlines flight UA12 from Zurich to Chicago fell ill shortly before departure and to call sick.
Rather than cancelling the flight, United devised a plan to get the plane to Halifax in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia where a new set of pilots had been positioned to get the plane the rest of the way to Chicago.
Less than an hour before UA12 had landed in Halifax, United’s ill-fated Sunday afternoon service from Chicago O’Hare had taken off for its transatlantic crossing.
But after just passing the coast of Canada, the plane was forced to make an immediate U-turn after one of the flight attendants was so seriously injured that the pilots decided they needed to get the aircraft on the ground so that the crew member could receive medical attention.
UA3 ended up landing in Gander, a small town in Newfoundland and Labrador, which is famous for the role it played on 9/11 when 38 planes diverted to the small airfield after air traffic control grounded all aircraft headed towards the United States.
The heroic efforts of the townspeople in looking after 7,000 passengers and crew who were stranded was immortalized in the Tony Award-winning musical Come From Away.
United Airlines took the decision to scrap the flight to Zurich and instead flew the aircraft and passengers back to Chicago early on Monday morning so that they could be rebooked on an alternative get to where they intended to be in time for Christmas.
The carrier told passengers that the flight had to be canceled due to “an unexpected operational issue.”
Meanwhile, the passengers on flight UA12 ended up getting to Chicago on the same day, although with a delay of around eight hours.
