Owning valid documents is the second item on the State Department’s checklist for internationally travelling US tourists.
It’s also necessary for pilots as an estimated 257 passengers found a difficult way last weekend.
United Airlines Flight 198 left Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday at 1:47pm and took a roughly 14-hour trip to Shanghai, China. However, an airline spokesman said the plane was decoupled to San Francisco instead because the pilot “didn’t have a passport.”
The plane landed in the city near the bay at 5:05pm.
The plane was delayed over three hours before taking off.
A United spokesman said the airline had arranged for new crews to fly passengers. A new 13 crew was installed, and flights began at 8:28pm and landed at 12:48am local time on Monday.
Passengers were lately provided with meal vouchers and private compensation, the spokesman said.
A Reddit user who said he was on the flight said he was given a $15 meal voucher and was told the plane had been repurposed due to “an unexpected crew-related issues.”
United did not answer questions about what happened if the pilot landed in China without a passport or if measures were not in place to verify the paperwork of the crew before departure.
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