{"id":296789,"date":"2026-05-02T16:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/296789\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T16:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T16:25:12","slug":"humanoid-robot-named-bebop-causes-southwest-airlines-flight-delay-out-of-oakland-san-francisco-bay-airport-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/296789\/","title":{"rendered":"Humanoid robot named Bebop causes Southwest Airlines flight delay out of Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. — Passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to San Diego arrived more than an hour late Thursday after an unusual traveler — a humanoid robot — prompted a runway delay.<\/p>\n

The 70-pound robot, named Bebop, was traveling for work when it became the focus of questions and safety checks before departure.<\/p>\n

Before boarding, Bebop even put on a brief show for passengers.<\/p>\n

But once the robot was strapped in, concerns arose.<\/p>\n

“Then they come and start asking, what kind of batteries does it have? What’s going on with this? X, Y and Z. They want to see it,” said Eily Ben-Abraham with Elite Event Robotics.<\/p>\n

“And meanwhile, I’m, like, watching his flight, and I keep seeing online, ‘runway delay,'” said Chana Ben-Abraham with Elite Event Robotics.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Southwest Airlines said Bebop’s lithium battery exceeded the airline’s maximum allowable size and was confiscated, leading to the delay.<\/p>\n

Elite Event Robotics<\/a> said it is now working to recover the battery before its next scheduled appearance.<\/p>\n

Dustin Dorsey: “So, will Bebop be joining you on another flight then in the future?”<\/p>\n

“He’ll be there on Sunday,” Chana Ben-Abraham said. “We’re overnighting batteries to Chicago tomorrow to hopefully be able to fulfill the next event request.”<\/p>\n

“At the moment, we got him under 100 pounds, so I shouldn’t have to worry about actually, like, walking him through the terminals,” Eily Ben-Abraham said.<\/p>\n

The delay ended, and the flight continued — leaving behind a travel story that could only be told in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

\"Now<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif. — Passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to San Diego arrived more than an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[125864,125787,7,9,8,4911,64073,5132,82523,22374,125557],"class_list":["post-296789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-125864","tag-bebop","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-flight-delay","tag-humanoid-robot","tag-oakland-airport","tag-oakland-san-francisco-bay-airport","tag-southwest-airlines","tag-southwest-flight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}