Pakistani airline blunder sends passenger to Saudi Arabia instead of Karachi

Karachi: In a bizarre airline blunder, a passenger from Lahore was flown to Saudi Arabia instead of Karachi and was deported back to Pakistan.

The incident happened on July 7 with Malik Shahzain, an electrical engineer from Karachi, aboard an AirSial flight.

A Civil Aviation Authority official said they are investigating the unusual incident. "A passenger boarding the wrong flight by mistake can happen, but we have never come across a case where a domestic passenger ended up on an international flight," the official said.

According to Shahzain, he was returning to Karachi from Lahore on the night of July 7 after learning that his child had fallen ill. He arrived at the airport on time and presented his pre-booked boarding pass, and was then directed to the lounge and the departure gate.

"There were two AirSial aeroplanes on the tarmac, one headed to Karachi and the other to Jeddah. The staff, without checking properly, put me on the international flight, and I only realised this when, even after two hours of flying time, we did not land," Shahzain said.

While the passenger landed in Jeddah, his luggage reached Karachi.

At the Jeddah airport, Shahzain was questioned by immigration officials for hours before they realised that he landed there for no fault of his and directed the airline to put him on their next flight to Karachi.

However, the ordeal didn't end there, as the airline flew the passenger back to Lahore, informing him he would need to arrange his ticket to Karachi.

“I was informed about the illness of my son and decided to return home, as I had gone to Lahore on office work. Instead, I underwent a 15-hour ordeal where I ended up in Jeddah and had to endure hours of interrogation,” Shahzain said.

The engineer claims the airline staff accepted their mistake in putting him on the international flight from Lahore to Jeddah when he was supposed to fly from Lahore to Karachi.

However, he is still awaiting a formal response and apology from the private airline.

"So far, the airline has issued no explanation or apology for my ordeal,” Shahzain said.

AirSial is a Pakistani private airline based in Sialkot.