KARACHI: In a bizarre turn of events, a Pakistani man, who was supposed to travel to Karachi from Lahore, boarded a wrong flight and landed in the Saudi city of Jeddah this week, the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) confirmed on Friday.
The passenger, Malik Shahzain Ahmed, was traveling to Karachi through a private airline, Air Sial, but instead boarded the airline’s flight to Jeddah from the Lahore airport, local media reported, citing the passenger.
Ahmed told media that immigration authorities at the Jeddah airport briefly detained and questioned him upon landing in the Kingdom without a passport and deported him to Lahore after the situation became clear.
In a statement, the PAA said higher officials had taken notice of the lapse and written letters to civil aviation regulator and the station manager.
“In the letter, the civil aviation regulator has been requested to impose a heavy fine on the airline that is guilty of negligence,” PAA spokesman Saifullah said.
The PAA statement did not offer an explanation as to how the passenger cleared immigration at the Lahore airport before boarding the Jeddah-bound flight.
In a video clip circulating online, Ahmed said he went to Lahore airport to board the Karachi-bound flight on July 8, but he “mistakenly” sat in the Jeddah-bound flight after collecting his boarding pass for the domestic flight.
“After two hours, I asked [myself], ‘This plane doesn’t seem to be landing [soon]’,” he said. “Then I got to know that I had taken boarded the wrong plane.”
