Pilot timeout?

Water it down for me Reddit…. I’m on a southwest flight that should have been two hours. We loaded onto the plane and circled the tarmac for what felt like longer than usual, got cleared for departure and then the announcement came that the pilot had timed out and we had to go back. How did they not know that the pilot would time out 30 mins in? Seems like poor planning and unsafe. Will they comp this? --- **Post Details:** - **Subreddit:** r/travel - **Author:** u/pnkgmdrp - **Score:** 18 upvotes - **Upvote Ratio:** 68.0% - **Comments:** 15 - **Posted:** 7/14/2025 - **URL:** https://reddit.com/r/travel/comments/1lzd0l2/pilot_timeout/