PETALING JAYA, March 13 — A flight heading to Kuala Lumpur over the weekend was forced to make a turnaround after a passenger realised she had forgotten her baby at the boarding gate.

The frantic mother had informed the Saudi Arabia Airlines cabin crew onboard that her baby was still at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport, Gulf News reported.

Once the pilot learned of the strange dilemma, he immediately contacted air traffic control (ATC) officers to request permission for the plane to turn around.

A video recording of his exchange with ATC operators has gone viral on YouTube with 1.6 million views and counting.

“May God be with us. Can we come back or what?” said the pilot.

After noting down the flight number, an operator can be heard asking a colleague about the appropriate protocol to follow.

“This flight is requesting to come back... a passenger forgot her baby in the waiting area, the poor thing,” the pilot added.

It was definitely a first for the ATC operators who were noticeably bewildered at the situation.

One of them asks the pilot to restate the reason for the U-turn.

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

“Okay, head back to the gate. This is totally a new one for us!” the operator replied.

No details have emerged of how the mother could have left behind something as important as her baby in the first place.

The incident joins a list of other bizarre onboard shenanigans that have forced flights to turn around in the past.

In 2015, a British Airways plane headed to Dubai had to make an emergency landing after a foul stench from the toilet started permeating the cabin.

According to a passenger, the pilot had described the smelly culprit as “liquid faecal excrement”, BBC News reported.

Earlier this year, a WestJet passenger was fined US$21,000 (RM85,890) after his drunk behaviour onboard a flight caused the pilot to make an emergency landing and dump 20,000 pounds of fuel so that the plane could land safely.

Washington Post stated that the man had consumed six rounds of alcoholic beverages before the flight and became unruly with cabin crew after attempting to access the restroom during takeoff.