August 2, 2023
SINGAPORE – A passenger on a flight by a low-cost Indian airline was surprised on Monday when she arrived at a completely different part of the Indian sub-continent from her intended destination.
Ms Wasifa Jan intended to fly from Indian capital New Delhi to Srinagar, the state capital of the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir region.
Instead, she somehow boarded a flight bound for the western city of Pune, about 150km from Mumbai.
Both flights were with low-cost carrier SpiceJet, and the error came to light only after the Pune flight landed at its destination.
Ms Jan was then flown back to New Delhi and put on a flight to Srinagar, Indian media reported, citing a SpiceJet spokesman who apologised for the incident.
“We have personally reached out to the affected passenger to offer our apologies, and are arranging for her travel to Srinagar on Monday itself,” the spokesman said.
The incident was at least the second over a six-month period involving a passenger boarding the wrong domestic flight, the Times of India news website said.
On Jan 30, a man who had booked a flight from New Delhi to Patna, in eastern India’s Bihar state, ended up in the western city of Udaipur – about 1,400km away from his destination.
In that incident, the passenger is said to have gone to the right gate and scanned his boarding pass accordingly.
However, he boarded the wrong bus bridging service from the terminal building to his plane.
The passenger did not realise he was on the wrong plane, even when in-flight announcements were made about the destination.
He was eventually flown back to Delhi on the same day and then put on a flight to Patna on Jan 31.
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation has sought a report about the incident.