In a recent incident that left air traffic control (ATC) officers perplexed in Saudi Arabia, a passenger "left behind" her kid at an airport terminal and only remembered this fact after plane was set for takeoff. The Saudia Airlines flight SV832, en route to Kuala Lumpur, had to divert back to Jeddah's King Abdulaziz Airport due to the unusual emergency.
The incident forced the plane's captain to request an emergency landing, immediately contacting a Jeddah air traffic controller asking for an all-clear to fly back to the city.
Someone captured the conversation between the pilot and ATC officer in a Snapchat video that has since gone viral ... and it's simply the stuff of movies.
In the footage, shocked air traffic controllers can be heard asking the pilot to confirm the reason behind his emergency landing request, to which he replies, saying:
"A passenger on board forgot her kid in the terminal and she refuses to continue the flight. Please confirm whether we can get back to the gate or what," the pilot says.
"Ok, head back to the gate. This is totally a new one for us!" ATC officer exclaims.
The pilot's call to ATC didn't go down well with hundreds of Saudis, who were shocked by the incident.
"I am too shocked to even believe this"
"This is so bizarre... how did she forget her son?"
"Home alone 0.5"
Some harshly criticized the mother
"This woman is negligent and must be punished over this."
But many defended her
"We don't know what this woman's circumstances were."
Because this can happen to anyone
"Thank God, who reunited her with her infant. So many of us forget that our children are with us in malls or hospitals. Sometimes, one can forget their kids are in school."
Many shared the same reasonable explanation to what happened
"The mother was with her sister and her son; they were all going to Malaysia and got on different buses heading to the plane. The mother got on a bus, and her sister and the baby on another. The latter's driver drove to a plane flying to Jakarta. When they realized the mistake, the mother was already on the plane, which was on its way out of the airport."
An employee shared details about the incident
"They were separated on ground because the mom was assisting an old lady, probably her own mother. Due to language barrier, she used the word 'FORGOT' when she was actually referring to 'LEFT BEHIND' because she can't describe the situation at the moment as she was in panic," an anonymous source told StepFeed.
The mother was with family members, with whom she left her child, and was well aware of the situation as they had "different seat arrangements."
What startled the mother as well as the flight's crew was the fact that the rest of the family failed to board the plane, which drove her to ask "the Captain if she can go down the aircraft and not continue if they cannot find her family."
In addition, the plane was still "on ground" when the incident took place instead of being midair, like media reports suggested earlier.
The source also clarified that the baby was in fact a kid aged between three and five.
Editor's note: The article has been updated after an anonymous source clarified the details of the incident to StepFeed.