Karachi:
In undoubtedly one of the most bizarre cases in the history of air travel, a passenger to Karachi was wrongly for a flight to Jeddah, which led to a 15 -hour test which ended with interrogations with the Saudi authorities and a struggle to return home.
Malik Shahzain, an electrician and resident engineer of Korangi, returned to Karachi de Lahore on the night of July 7 after learning that her child had fallen ill. However, due to what he described as a “serious and irresponsible error” by the land staff at Lahore airport, he was rather transported by plane to Jeddah aboard an air flight.
Addressing L’Express PK Press Club, Shahzain recalled how he arrived at the airport around 9 p.m. and approached the staff of airlines with his pass for the flight to Karachi. At the time, two air planes were parked on the Tarmac – one planned for Karachi and the other for Djeddah – both left at 10 p.m.
“I gave my boarding pass and I was directed to the international departure door. I was sitting at the headquarters of the 17F window without being informed that I had embarked on the wrong flight,” he said.
Two hours after the start of the flight, Shahzain was worried and asked a on -board agent when the plane arrives in Karachi. At his shock, he was informed that the plane was on the way to Jeddah.
Panic ensued among the crew, which informed the captain of the situation. Upon his arrival in Saudi Arabia, airline staff tried to manage the incident discreetly but failed. Saudi customs and security officials rose aboard the plane and escorted Shahzain for the interrogation.
“I was taken about 800 meters from the plane, interviewed several times, and even my bottle of water was examined,” he said. A member of the Bengali language of the Saudi security team acted as a translator during the investigation.
After explaining the situation and presented his documents, Shahzain was released when the authorities accepted that the incident had occurred due to negligence on the part of the airline. He was placed on a return flight to Lahore with instructions for airsial to ensure his arrival safely in Karachi.
However, the problem did not end there. “When I got to Lahore, I was told to organize my own ticket for Karachi,” he said.
With only 15,000 rupees in hand and the ticket at RS23,000, he had to contact the Karachi office of his factory to buy the ticket on his name.
Shahzain said that even if his 11 kg luggage had been properly sent to Karachi and received later, the airline had not yet apologized or accepting responsibility. He stressed that his intention in sending a legal notice was not to request financial compensation but to request responsibility.
“This error could have had much worse consequences if they implied someone who could not explain-perhaps a illiterate or poor traveler from a distant region,” he said. “It is not only embarrassment; such incidents damage the image of the country.”
He called for appropriate training and the responsibility of the staff of airlines, arguing that reprimanding the simple fact of managers is not enough.
