United Airlines flight to China diverted to San Francisco after pilot forgets passport

A United Airlines flight headed to Shanghai had to turn around over the weekend after the pilot forgot to take a passport, the airline said.

The mishap happened Saturday afternoon on United Flight 198 from Los Angeles International Airport to Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Data on FlightAware.com showed the flight took off on time just before 2 p.m. but was diverted to San Francisco, where it landed just after 5 p.m. There were 257 passengers and 13 crew members onboard.

United said in a brief statement that the pilot did not have the passport, so the plane had to return to California, where a new crew would take passengers to China. The plane left Saturday evening about six hours behind schedule.

The airline said passengers were given meal vouchers and compensation for the inconvenience.