Can you imagine forgetting a child at the airport and not being able to realize it until the plane was already in the air? Sadly, one mom proved that this could happen.

During a Saudi Airlines flight in 2019, a plane that had just taken off had to cut short the flight and go back for a baby a passenger had forgotten at the airport. The place flew from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

The plane had to return to the King Abdul Aziz airport after realizing that the mom had left her baby there.

She Told Flight Attendants About The Baby

Once the woman realized what she had done, she immediately told the flight attendants about it. She also insisted that the plane had to go back.

As soon as the crew learned what happened, they made a lot of effort to get in touch with the ground to figure out a solution. These kinds of situations obviously don't happen all the time, and there was a lot of confusion.

The pilot was heard asking the traffic controllers whether they could go back. He explained that the plane needed to go back because a passenger had forgotten her baby at the airport.

Traffic control asked the pilot to repeat what he was saying, and he said:

"We told you, a passenger left her baby in the terminal and refuses to continue the flight."

The Plane Had To Turn Around

Although there are no details on how long it took before the flight turned around, the plane was eventually allowed to return to the airport. For obvious reasons, there is no protocol on what to do when a mom forgets her baby at the airport.

Surprisingly, the plane was given permission to land again and head back to the gate. The traffic control also said:

"This is totally a new one for us!"

A video of the air traffic controllers talking to the pilots on the radio was later released. Social media was abuzz after people learned that a baby had been forgotten at the airport.

Eventually, the mother was reunited with her baby, but no further information was given about the passenger and her child.

People had different opinions about the incident. Many people were in shock, wondering how a mother could forget about her baby in the first place.

The pilot, crew, and air traffic controllers also got a lot of praise for handling the situation.

This Has Happened Before

Back in 2018, another child was forgotten at the airport. The incident occurred in Stuttgart, where a German couple forgot their 5-year-old daughter at the airport.

The police eventually found the girl, and they were not sure how she had ended up alone at the airport.

The authorities tracked down the parents after the mother called the police, asking if her daughter had been found at the airport.

She revealed that the unfortunate incident occurred after she and her husband drove home in different cars after landing at the airport. Each assumed that the girl was with the other parent.