In a bizarre incident, an IndiGo passenger booked to fly to Patna in East India landed on the opposite side of the country after boarding the wrong aircraft. An investigation is ongoing to determine how various pre-boarding checks failed to detect this error. IndiGo, in the meantime, has acknowledged the mistake and reportedly refunded the passenger his airfare for the inconvenience caused.

Wrong city

On January 30th, IndiGo passenger, identified as Afsar Hussain, was booked to fly to Patna (PAT) from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) on flight 6E214 with a scheduled departure of 16:05. For Hussain, it seemed like a routine event where he boarded the shuttle bus that took him to the aircraft.

It was only when the aircraft reached its destination that he realized he had boarded the wrong flight. Instead of reaching Patna, he reached Udaipur in the state of Rajasthan on flight 6E319.

Capture-2
Photo: GCmap.com

After the passenger informed officials at Udaipur Airport, IndiGo was alerted to the mistake. The airline flew him back to Delhi on the same day and put him on a flight to Patna a day later on January 31st. IndiGo has released a statement that said,

“We are aware of the incident that took place with a passenger in 6E319 Delhi-Udaipur flight. We are engaged with the authorities on this matter. We regret the inconvenience caused to the passenger.”

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Under probe

India’s aviation watchdog, the DGCA, has started a probe investigating how such a lapse in pre-departure procedures could have occurred.

Indeed, it is puzzling that both the passenger and the airline failed to notice the error, given that there is a standard operating procedure in place for the boarding process. This was one of those flights which did not have access to an aerobridge, and passengers were taken to the plane by a coach.

Indigo Airbus A320 Landing
Photo: Anand G Iyer/Shutterstock

Somehow, authorities failed to notice the passenger had boarded the wrong coach, which took him to the Udaipur-bound aircraft. IndiGo checks the boarding pass at the ramp before letting passengers inside the plane. But the error went unnoticed at this stage, too.

Once inside, even Hussain did not seem to realize that he was in the wrong plane despite the cabin announcements about the flight, its destination, and the flight time.

Check out more Indian aviation news here.

This is the second incident this year highlighting the lapse in boarding procedures in India. Last month, a Go First plane departed Bengaluru airport, leaving behind 55 passengers. The airline apologized for the incident and was fined around $12,000.

It is difficult to imagine that in this day and age, a passenger could board the wrong airplane or that airlines could fail to keep a count of their passengers on a flight. But it does happen. Those interested in finding out more can check out Simple Flying’s detailed article on this.

What do you make of such incidents? Please leave a comment below.