Passengers traveling between Zurich and Chicago ran into issues on both westbound and eastbound flights on Sunday after crew illness on both flights prompted Canadian diversions.
United Airlines Zurich – Chicago Flight Diverts To Canada Due To Crew Illness, Then Chicago – Zurich Flight Suffers Same Fate Hours Later
As noted by JonNYC,
Bad day to be flying between Chicago and Zürich on UAL. Zürich to Chicago diverted to Halifax because of a sick pilot, Chicago to Zürich is diverting because of a flight attendant injury.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) December 23, 2024
Indeed, UA12 from Zurich (ZRH) to Chicago (ORD) diverted to Halifax (YHZ) in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia on Sunday after a pilot of got sick. After taking off four hours later from Zurich, it landed in Halifax at 4:55 pm local time. Less than two hours later, the flight took off from YHZ and continued to Chicago, arriving into ORD at 8:07 pm, about seven hours behind schedule.
But that wasn’t all. During that time, UA3 from Chicago (ORD) to Zurich (ZRH) took off at 4:10 pm. But a flight attendant injury onboard forced a diversion to Gander (YQX), part of Canada’s remote Newfoundland and Labrador province.
After the flight attendant issue was addressed, the flight took off at 2:20 am this morning to return to Chicago, landing 3:39 am.
There is no word on the specific nature of the flight attendant’s injury, with United only blaming the cancellation on “an unexpected operational issue.”
These double diversions meant that UA12, from Zurich to Chicago, has been canceled for today, Monday, December 23, 2024.
Talk about a cursed route….I hope the pilot and flight attendant are okay and all the passengers onboard are able to reach their final destination by Christmas.
top image: Aero Icarus / Wikimedia Commons
Good on UA . Better safe than sorry .
Seems like more than a coincidence.
Why?
Guess they shouldn’t have had the fish.
Stop calling me Shirley!
Hahahah I was thinking about the fish too when I read this story.
The injury must have been pretty serious to do a u turn where they did, so here’s hoping the FA is doing ok. Looks like the crew would have timed out en route, so they elected to turn back. Initially, it appeared United had arranged for another crew, but they ended up canceling. The flight looked pretty empty, so my guess is there will be space today.