A passenger accidentally reached Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, instead of Karachi from Lahore. The airline mistakenly boarded a Karachi-bound passenger onto a Jeddah-bound flight.
This resulted in a 15-hour ordeal that ended with questioning by Saudi authorities and a struggle to return home. Malik Shahzain, an electrical engineer and resident of Karangi, was returning to Karachi from Lahore on the night of July 7 after learning that his child had fallen ill.
However, due to an irresponsible error by ground staff at Lahore airport, he was instead flown to Jeddah aboard an AirSial flight. Speaking to the local media, Shahzain recalled arriving at the airport around 9 a.m. and approaching the airline staff with his boarding pass for the Karachi-bound flight.
At this time, the two AirSial flights were parked at the tarmac, one scheduled for Karachi and the other for Jeddah, both reportedly departing at approximately 10 p.m.
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“I handed over my boarding pass and was directed to the international departures gate. I was seated at window seat 17F without being informed I had boarded the wrong flight,” he said.
Shahzain got concerned when, two hours into the flight, he asked the flight attendant when the plane would arrive in Karachi. To his shock, he was informed that the aircraft was en route to Jeddah. Panic ensued among the crew, who informed the captain about the situation upon arrival in Saudi Arabia. The airline staff tried to manage the incident discreetly but failed. Saudi customs and security officials boarded the aircraft and escorted Shahzain away for interrogation.
“I was taken about 800 metres from the plane, questioned repeatedly, and even my water bottle was examined,” he said. A Bengali-speaking member of the Saudi security team acted as a translator during the inquiry.
Shahzain was released when authorities accepted that the incident had occurred due to negligence following a thorough investigation by him. He was placed on a return flight to Lahore with instructions for Airsial to ensure his safe arrival in Karachi.
Upon arrival in Saudi Arabia, Saudi customs and security officials boarded the aircraft and escorted Shahzain away for interrogation. However, the trouble did not end there for him when he reached Lahore. He was asked to arrange his ticket to Karachi.
With only 15,000 in hand and the ticket priced at Rs. 23,000, he had to contact his factory’s Karachi office to purchase the ticket on his behalf. Shahzain said that while his 11 kg luggage was correctly sent to Karachi and received later, the airline had yet to issue an apology or accept responsibility.
He stressed that his intention in sending a legal notice was not to demand financial compensation but to seek accountability. He said that this situation could have been far worse for someone illiterate or a poor traveller from a remote area. He called for proper training and accountability for airline staff, arguing that simply reprimanding those responsible is not enough.