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A mom left her baby at the airport, so the whole plane turned around to get her daughter.

A mom left her baby at the airport, so the whole plane turned around to get her daughter.
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If you have children and are upset with yourself for not being the perfect parent,  take comfort in knowing  that at least your vulnerable parenting moment didn’t make international news, like one mother who was recently separated from her baby.

Before we blame the mother involved, it's important to remember that Moms and Dads are human beings, too, and they are bound to forget to pick their child up from soccer practice at some point or forget about a date that means everything to their young child every now and then, no matter how mindful and caring they strive to be.

While traveling from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia, a mother realized she left her baby at the terminal after the plane was already up in the air. So, she did what any reasonable mother would do in that situation. She made an entire airplane turn around.

The mother told the flight crew her daughter was still in the boarding area of a terminal at King Abdul Aziz International Airport.


The crew then alerted the pilot. It’s unusual for a plane to turn around if there isn’t a medical or mechanical emergency, but the pilot made the decision to go back fort he baby.

Of course, they had to consult air traffic control. The conversation that has now gone viral.

“May God be with us. Can we come back or what?” the pilot said in a recording of the audio transmission.  

“This flight is requesting to come back… a passenger forgot her baby in the waiting area, the poor thing,” the air traffic controller then explained to a co-worker.

“I told you, a passenger has left her baby in the terminal and she is refusing to continue the flight,” repeated the pilot.

Eventually, the flight was allowed to turn around and land back in the airport.

“OK, head back to the gate,” said the controller. “This is totally a new one for us.”

Once they landed, the mother and baby were reunited.

We don’t know how a mother was able to leave her child at the airport, or why she didn’t realize she was sans baby until they were mid-air. At least she noticed her daughter was missing before they landed in Malaysia.

One twitter user says the mother was actually traveling with her sister, who was with the child in the waiting area of the terminal, writing:

“Just to clarify and not to blame the mom unitarily, the baby was with her sister and they were in two different buses, her sister and the baby went by mistake to Jakarta flight and then she returned to the terminal.”

If true, that would explain how the mother "forgot" about her baby and didn't notice until after take off.

We can only imagine how distraught the mother must have been. There is no greater worry than a mother’s worry. Although, both mother and daughter now have ammunition in their future fights. We can just see it now… “I want you to clean up your room.” “You left me at an airport!”

“Yeah, but I turned an entire plane around for you!”

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