Bhubaneswar, July 31: While one can’t think of wrongly traveling away a few kiIometers far from his destination, an Air India Express passenger has flown almost 1025 Km away from his destiny on Wednesday.
While he was intending to reach the Bagdogra Airport, Siliguri in West Bengal he landed in the Biju Patnaik International Airport at Bhubaneswar in Odisha by default.
The right passenger but wrong flight & wrong city mismatch, either for the passenger’s own fault or due to the airline’s security breach, put the Airlines and Airport Authorities in trouble, while the passenger hailing from West Bengal accidentally deboarded in Odisha.
According to sources, the young man boarded the Air India Express Flight IX 1128, an Airbus A320 (VT-EXA), from Srinagar to Delhi. Upon landing in Delhi at 3:05 PM, he was supposed to deboard and take a connecting flight to Bagdogra. However, he remained seated inside the aircraft reportedly for dozing and ultimately flew to Bhubaneswar.
The same plane was scheduled to continue from Delhi to Bhubaneswar, also as Flight IX 1128, and took off again at 3:55 PM, wherein the passenger landed at the BPIA, Bhubaneswar.
On the other hand, no cabin crew members were seen bothered to enquire of the extra one passenger during the 1025-Km airways.
As the odd passenger landed at the odd city from an odd aircraft, the airline arranged for the passenger to be flown back to Delhi on the return leg of the same aircraft. He was also accommodated in a hotel overnight and flown to Bagdogra on Thursday.
On being informed of the incident, the airport authorities and the operator airline itself initiated a probe into the matter.
Responding to press queries, an Air India Express spokesperson acknowledged the error, stating that an internal investigation is underway. The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has also been notified that will conduct an independent probe to identify the underlying reason behind the error.
At a time the Air India is under scanner of the DGCA after the Ahemadabad plane crash, frequent security breaches and violation of SOPs are yet under scrutiny, following a number of discordant incidents as on today.
