United Airlines Chicago-Zurich route sees two same-day diversions after flight crew become ill and injured

Two separate United Airlines flights between Chicago O’Hare and Zurich, Switzerland, were forced to make same-day diversions Sunday after flight crew became ill and injured.

The unfortunate series of events started when a pilot who was to operate United Airlines flight UA12 from Zurich to Chicago became ill shortly before take-off and called in sick.

Instead of canceling the flight, United devised a plan to get the plane to Halifax in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, where a new set of pilots had been placed to get the plane the rest of the way to Chicago.

Less than an hour before UA12 landed in Halifax, United’s ill-fated Sunday afternoon service from Chicago O’Hare took off for its transatlantic passage.

But after just passing the coast of Canada, the plane was forced to make a u-turn after one of the flight attendants was so seriously injured that the pilots decided they had to get the plane on the ground so the crew member could receive medical attention.

UA3 ended up landing in Gander, a small town in Newfoundland and Labrador famous for the role it played on 9/11, when 38 planes diverted to the small airfield after air traffic control directed all flights to the US due to.

The townspeople’s heroic efforts to care for 7,000 stranded passengers and crew were immortalized in the Tony Award-winning musical Get away from.

United Airlines made the decision to scrap the flight to Zurich and instead flew the plane and passengers back to Chicago early Monday morning so they could be rebooked on an alternate route to where they intended to be in time for Christmas.

The airline told passengers the flight had to be canceled due to “an unexpected operational issue.”

Meanwhile, passengers on flight UA12 ended up arriving in Chicago the same day, albeit with a delay of about eight hours.

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