Karachi:
Possibly one of the strangest cases in the air travel history, a passenger to Karachi was by mistake approached by error on a flight to Jeddah, which resulted in a 15 -hour test that ended with the interrogation of the Saudi authorities and a struggle to return home.
Malik Shahzain, an electrical engineer and resident of Korangi, returned to Karachi since Lahore on the night of July 7 after learning that his son had become ill. However, due to what he described as a “serious and irresponsible error” by the floor staff at Lahore airport, he was transferred to Jeddah aboard an aerial flight.
Speaking to Express PAkGazette, Shahzain recalled how around 9 pm arrived at the airport and approached the airline staff with his boarding pass for the flight to Karachi. At that time, two air planes were parked in the asphalt, one scheduled for Karachi and the other for Jeddah, both allegedly left at 10 pm
“Among my boarding pass and I was aimed at the international exits door. I was sitting in the 17F window seat without being informed that I had approached the wrong flight,” he said.
Two hours after the flight, Shahzain worried and asked a flight attendant when the plane would arrive to Karachi. To his surprise, he was informed that the plane was on his way to Jeddah.
Panic occurred between the crew, who informed the captain about the situation. Upon arriving in Saudi Arabia, the airline staff tried to administer the incident discreetly but failed. Customs and Saudi security officials approached the plane and escorted Shahzain to interrogate.
“I was taken about 800 meters from the plane, repeatedly questioned, and my water bottle was even examined,” he said. A Bengali speech member of the Saudi security team acted as a translator during the investigation.
After explaining the situation and presenting 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 flight back to Lahore with instructions for Airsial to guarantee his safe arrival to Karachi.
However, the problem did not end there. “Upon arriving at Lahore, they told me to fix my own ticket to Karachi,” he said.
With only RS15,000 in the hand and the ticket with a price of RS23,000, he had to communicate with the Karachi office of his factory to buy the ticket in his name.
Shahzain said that while his 11 kg luggage was correctly sent to Karachi and received later, the airline had not yet issued an apology or accept responsibility. He stressed that his intention to send a legal notice was not to demand financial compensation but seek responsibility.
“This error could have had very worse consequences if I had involved someone who could not be explained, maybe an illiterate or poor traveler of a remote area,” he said. “It’s not just as shame; such incidents damage the image of the country.”
He requested adequate training and responsibility for the airline staff, arguing that simply rebuke those responsible is not enough.
