A 6,485-mile United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai that was scheduled to take nearly 14 hours was forced to make a costly diversion just two hours into the trans-Pacific flight when one of the pilots realized that he had left his passport at home.
The embarrassing incident occurred aboard United Airlines flight UA198 on Saturday, resulting in a seven-hour delay for all the passengers onboard the Boeing 787 Dreamliner as the carrier scrambled to find a replacement crew to get them to their intended destination.
Things started off well as Flight 198 departed Los Angeles International Airport on time at around 2 pm on March 22, but as the ten-year-old Dreamliner was still climbing to its cruising altitude, the pilots held at around 31,000 feet as it became apparent that one of the crew didn’t have their passport.
Around two hours after takeoff, the plane suddenly made a sharp turn back towards the United States and headed towards San Francisco, where it landed just under three hours after departure.
Once on the ground, it became clear that the crew wouldn’t have enough hours to legally work for such a long flight, so the passengers had to be deplaned while United went on the hunt for an entirely new crew of pilots and flight attendants.
In the end, the heavily delayed flight left San Francisco International Airport at 9 pm on Saturday evening.
Providing an update to the passengers, United Airlines tactically explained: “Your flight diverted to San Francisco due to an unexpected crew-related issue requiring a new crew.”
“Once they arrive, we’ll get you back on your way to Shanghai as soon as possible. We sincerely apologize for this disruption and appreciate your patience.”
One of the disgruntled passengers on the plane, however, laid bare exactly what went down, explaining that the diversion was due to one of the flight crew forgetting their passport.
The embarrassing snafu has raised an obvious question: How on Earth could this have happened? After all, passengers have their passports at multiple stages in their journey, from check-in to the TSA security checkpoint and at the gate just prior to boarding.
The situation is, however, a little different for aircrew. Pilots and flight attendants do not need to show anyone their passport before an international flight leaving, although they are required to confirm at sign-in that they are in possession of all required legal documents – such as passports, visas for certain countries, and even yellow fever certificates for high-risk locations.
Unlike cross-checking, where an airplane door is armed or disarmed, aircrew do not check each other’s documents (well, there are some airlines where a physical check happens, although this is fairly rare).
The problem, however, is that passports are more commonly checked on arrival at an international destination, especially China. Arriving in Shanghai without his passport could have resulted in the pilot being detained and deported, while United could have been slapped with a hefty fine, so it definitely made sense to head back when the mistake was discovered.
Unfortunately, aircrew don’t always realize they’ve left their passport at home until it’s already too late, and they go to get their passport from their bag as they’re walking up to the immigration counter.
What happens next can vary massively from country to country. In some places, the immigration authorities are more than happy to accept the crew members” official airline ID and wave them through – especially if they are traveling with a ‘General Declaration,’ a standard document used in aviation that lists the names of the crew onboard.
In other places, the crew will still be allowed to enter the country but will be given a personal fine, while in other places, the crew member will be deported on the next available flight – often on the same plane that they have just arrived on.
Of course, mistakes happen, but this diversion will be a rather costly one for United Airlines and will no doubt put the pilot at the center of the debacle under a lot of scrutiny.
United should refund the full fare of every passenger on that plane. Ridiculous that paying customers should get screwed because of an idiot employee.