Plane forced to turn around after mum 'forgets baby at airport'

There are not many situations that are going to make a plane do a U-turn and head back to the airport – but apparently forgetting your baby is one of them.

That was the situation for a Kuala Lumpur-bound flight, which turned back to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, when a frantic passenger told the crew that she had accidentally left her baby in the boarding area of the terminal, according to local publication the Gulf News.

A subsequent conversation between the Saudia Airlines pilot and air traffic control, which was uploaded to YouTube, has since gone viral.

“May God be with us. Can we come back or what?” the pilot can be heard saying over the radio.

“This flight is requesting to come back… a passenger forgot her baby in the waiting area, the poor thing,” an ATC operative can be heard saying.

Struggling to believe the request, they asked the pilot to explain the scenario one more time for good measure.

“We told you, a passenger left her baby in the terminal and refuses to continue the flight,” the pilot replied.

Describing it as “a totally new one for us”, air traffic control granted the flight permission to return.

While the distressed mother was reunited with her child, there’s mixed reports as to how the baby was left behind in the first place.

Saudi Twitter user Fahad M. Al Barrak, who shared the original audio of the incident, said the baby had been left with its sister who boarded the wrong bus at the terminal.

When the mother realised the pair hadn’t made the flight, she insisted the plane turn round, Mr Al Barrak claimed.

Yahoo7 News has contacted Saudia for comment.

Do you have a story tip? Email: y7newsroom@yahoo7.com.au.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoo7’s daily newsletter. Sign up here.