A Malaysia-bound flight was forced to turn back to Saudi Arabia minutes after takeoff after a woman passenger told the cabin crew that she had forgotten her newborn child in the terminal.
The pilot of Saudi’s flight number SV832 was forced to make the unusual request and return to King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah, ANI reported.
The bizarre incident left airport authorities baffled as there is no clear protocol for such a scenario, Gulf News reported.
In a video of the pilot calling Saudi air traffic control, he can be heard saying: “May God be with us. Can we come back?”
This bizarre statement leads to confusion, and the controller can be heard asking his colleagues on how to proceed.
“This flight is requesting to come back,” the controller tells another colleague. “A passenger forgot her baby in the waiting area, the poor thing.”
Following this, the pilot can be heard repeating: “I told you, a passenger has left her baby in the terminal and she is refusing to continue the flight.”
The operator then proceeds to clear the flight’s return, exclaiming, as per ANI: "OK, head back to the gate. This is totally a new one for us!"
The pilot has since been lauded for coming to the rescue of the distraught mother by social media users.
The mother and child were subsequently reunited.
(With inputs from ANI)
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