Passenger ends up more than 1,000 miles away from intended destination after plane mix-up
A low-cost airline has apologised to a passenger after she discovered she had landed more than 1,000 miles from her intended destination.
In the sort of story that must make the most organised of travellers sick to their stomach, the passenger, identified as Wasifa Jan, had been booked on a flight from the Indian capital New Delhi to Srinagar with SpiceJet, reports The Times of India.
Srinagar is the state capital of the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir region.
But instead she disembarked and found herself in the western city of Pune, which is just under 100 miles from the city of Mumbai – and 1,066 miles from Srinagar, as the crow flies.
The passenger’s travel agent shared the story on Twitter, calling the incident “very unfortunate” and tagging India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation and SpiceJet in the tweet.
Hello @DGCAIndia @flyspicejet @manishasinghal Very unfortunate
My passenger was today travelling from Dehli to srinagar today flight number SG 8963 but unfortunately my passenger has been put into the wrong flight by spicejet which arrived at Pune airport pic.twitter.com/tv1gZs5qqn— wuchubaayaa tour and travels (@wuchubayaa) July 31, 2023
It’s unclear how the error occurred, with the mistake only being realised once the plane had landed.
The Independent has contacted SpiceJet for comment.
Ms Jan was subsequently flown back to New Delhi and then travelled to her intended destination, according to reports.
“We have personally reached out to the affected passenger to offer our apologies, and are arranging for her travel to Srinagar on Monday itself,” a spokesperson for the budget airline told The Times of India.
A similar incident occurred earlier this year, when an IndiGo passenger booked to fly to Patna in east India, but landed on the opposite side of the country after boarding the wrong aircraft. Authorities have been investigating how the incident occurred despite a number of pre-boarding checks.
In May, a woman who had booked a flight to Florida from Philadelphia accidentally ended up 900 miles away in Jamaica without her passport after boarding the wrong plane.
She didn’t bring her travel document as it’s not required to travel domestically within the US. Jamaican authorities allowed her to remain in the air bridge, and the crew stayed with her until the next flight to Philadelphia took off several hours later.