Flight Turns Back After Mom Forgets Baby

Flights don't tend to turn back just because a passenger left something behind in the waiting area—but it's a different story when the forgotten item is a baby. A Saudi Arabian Airlines flight from Jeddah to Kuala Lumpur had to turn around Saturday after a woman told cabin crew she had left the infant behind in the boarding area, Gulf News reports. "May God be with us. Can we come back or what?" the pilot asks in Arabic-language video of the conversation with air traffic controllers, explaining that the passenger "refused to continue the flight."

"This flight is requesting to come back ... a passenger forgot her baby in the waiting area, the poor thing,” an air traffic controller wondering about protocol asked a colleague. Eventually, permission was given: "OK, head back to the gate," the controller said. "This is totally a new one for us!" It's not clear whether the flight had already taken off or had left the gate and was waiting to depart when the pilot asked to return, though records show that the flight was delayed by 54 minutes, the Telegraph reports. (More airline stories.)