Flight to Beijing Returns to Dulles Over Alleged Child Kidnapping

A United Airlines flight returned to Dulles Thursday — five hours after it had taken off on a flight to Beijing — to return a woman wanted for allegedly kidnapping her child, according to several news reports.

A custody battle apparently is what set off the return of a planeload of 180 passengers, after the FBI requested that the flight return to Dulles, according to a CBS News report.

After Flight 897 lifted off at 12:39 p.m. from Dulles International Airport, located in Northern Virginia just west of Washington, D.C., it turned around five hours later to return, after authorities told airline officials a kidnapping suspect was on board.

The child’s father alerted the FBI, the news report said, because he thought the child’s mother was taking his son to China and not planning to return.

The pilot told passengers the return to the airport was due to mechanical difficulties.

At the airport, the mother was taken into custody by authorities on attempted kidnapping charges; her mother, who was reportedly accompanying her, was not taken into custody. The child was handed over to the father.