Baby Left Behind, Saudi Airline Makes Emergency Landing

Jeddah: Leaving behind wallet, mobile phones or documents is not uncommon at airport terminals. But what if a mother forgets her baby and boards the flight without any worry in the world.

Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport was witness to this rare incident recently when a Saudi Arabian Airlines on way to Kuala Lumpur requested to return back minutes after take off.

The flight made a request for an emergency landing as the mother, rested comfortably till about then, realised to her horror that her little one was missing from her arm.

“This flight is requesting to come back…a passenger forgot her baby in the waiting area, the poor thing. May God be with us. Can we come back or what?” the pilot was heard saying to the air controller in a video which has gone viral.

The air traffic was caught stumped at the request– for there are no set protocols to handle such type of requests. Airports world over follow a set of prescribed procedures dealing with emergency landing arising out of technical snags and even hijack attempts.

But no aviation rules deal with emergency landing due to babies being left behind.

“We told you a passenger left her baby in the terminal and refuses to continue the flight, the pilot of flight no SV832 kept repeating to the air traffic control much to the dismay of the staff.

The operator at the other end wanted to make it sure that the reason for return-back was because of baby missing onboard. He was even heard checking with his colleagues how to handle it. The operator then cleared the flight to return, exclaiming “ok, head back to the gate. This totally a new one for us!”.

The bizarre incident ended on a happy note after the mother reunited with her baby at the airport, Gulf News reported.

It, however, remained unclear if the airport authorities have ticked her for her careless and reckless attitude.