• Source:JND
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A United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai had to turn back last weekend because one of the pilots forgot his passport, the airline told CNN. Flight UA 198 took off from LAX at about 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 22, with 257 passengers and 13 crew members, heading toward Shanghai, China’s biggest city.

Two hours into the trip over the Pacific Ocean, the Boeing 787 turned around and landed in San Francisco at around 5 pm, according to FlightAware. United explained, "The pilot didn't have his passport with him." They got a new crew ready, and the flight left for Shanghai later that evening. Passengers got meal vouchers and some compensation for the trouble.

Wait for two weeks for Compensation

The new flight took off at 9 pm and arrived in Shanghai six hours late. A passenger named Yang Shuhan from China said she heard the pilot sound annoyed over the speaker, admitting he forgot his passport. In San Francisco, she got $30 in meal vouchers and used them at a Japanese restaurant at the airport. She also asked United for more compensation online and was told she'd hear back in about two weeks.

Yang, who's from Hangzhou in eastern China, was coming back from a work trip. After landing in Shanghai at 12:43 am on Monday, she still had to drive two and a half hours home, which left her super tired. The delay messed up her Monday work plans, but she liked that the pilot was honest.

Passengers fume over blunder

Other passengers weren't as happy, they complained on RedNote, a Chinese social media app like Instagram, calling it outrageous. One post asking, "How could someone mess up this bad at their job?" got over 10,000 likes. The trouble didn’t end there. The return flight, UA 199 from Shanghai to Los Angeles, was also delayed because the plane arrived late. A business traveller from Shanghai, who didn't want their name shared, said their flight to LA was six hours late too. They had to switch tickets to make a connecting flight. "I'm really annoyed," they told CNN after landing at LAX late Sunday night. "This messed up all my Monday plans."

A Big Mistake

Shukor Yusof, who runs Endau Analytics, a company that studies airlines, told CNN this was "embarrassing" for United. He said forgetting a passport is "unacceptable" for a big airline like United and shows they’re not being careful enough. United is a huge company, flying 140 million people to over 300 places around the world every year, according to its website.
Shukor added that this kind of carelessness could cost United a lot of money- like the fuel they had to dump to turn the plane around and the payments to passengers.