Pilot forgets his passport; remembers it mid-flight

Updated March 26, 2025, 6:11 a.m. | By East Coast Breakfast / Skyye Ndlovu

A United Airlines flight from LA to Shanghai had to turn back mid-air because the pilot forgot his passport.

Have you ever forgotten your passport on an international trip? Maybe you had to rush home, call a friend, or (if you’re really unlucky) miss your flight entirely.

Well, what if the person who forgot their passport was flying the plane?

That’s exactly what happened on United Airlines Flight UA198, which took off from Los Angeles en route to Shanghai last weekend, only to turn around mid-air because one of the pilots realised he didn’t have his passport.

Yep – the man flying the plane forgot the one thing that actually lets him enter another country.

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Flight UA198, carrying 257 passengers and 13 crew members, took off from LAX around 2 pm on March 22, setting off for a smooth 12-hour journey across the Pacific.

About two hours into the flight, as the aircraft soared high above the ocean, an awkward realisation hit. The pilot didn’t have his passport.

Cue the frustrated intercom announcement, which, according to passenger Yang Shuhan, sounded like a man who had just remembered he'd left his house keys inside after locking the door.

The pilot had to turn back, diverting the plane to San Francisco, where United quickly arranged for a replacement crew to take over.

A new team got the passengers back in the air by 9 pm, landing in Shanghai about six hours behind schedule.

While the airline did provide meal vouchers and compensation, some passengers were less than thrilled about the unexpected layover.

Shuhan, for example, used her $30 (R600) meal voucher for a nice Japanese meal at the airport (because, hey, might as well make the best of it).

However, others took to social media, calling the incident “outrageous” and “speechless". One popular post on China’s RedNote (basically their version of Instagram) summed it up best:

“How could someone mess up this badly at work?”

That's a really great question.

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This single oopsie caused a chain reaction that affected another group of travellers whose return flight (from Shanghai to LA) was delayed by six hours due to the inbound plane arriving late.

One frustrated passenger who had to change their connecting flight plans simply summed up their feelings with: “Really inconvenient.”

Honestly, that’s putting it very politely.

Anyways, the moral of this story? If you’re a pilot flying internationally, maybe double-check you have your passport before takeoff.

Forgetting your passport doesn’t just mean a missed flight, it means turning a massive Boeing 787 around and making headlines across the globe.

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