Srinagar- Low-cost airline SpiceJet has again landed itself in an embarrassing situation after boarding a Kashmiri woman on a wrong flight to Pune, instead of Srinagar.
Wasifa Jan, in her thirties, had taken a SpiceJet flight from the Srinagar International Airport last weekend to the national capital with one of her relatives. She had booked her return flight in Spicejet for July 31 through her travel agent. However, instead of landing in Srinagar, she found herself lost in Pune, over 1066 miles away from her destination.
“She was waiting at the Terminal 3 to board her SpiceJet flight SG 8963 to Srinagar that was to depart at 10:40AM. In the meantime, someone from the ground staff of SpiceJet approached her and boarded her on a Pune bound flight,” Saleem Ismail, her travel agent told Kashmir Observer.
Wasifa, Ismail said, was not well read and thus followed the instructions given by the ground staff at the New Delhi airport. Her boarding pass too was not even checked and stamped by the staff in what Ismail said was a big security lapse.
Interestingly, Wasifa was allotted 32B seat on the boarding pass issued to her.
“In the afternoon, she called me up and narrated the entire incident. She was terrified and was constantly crying,” he said.
Perturbed by his client’s constant calls for help, Ismail shared Wasifa’s story on Twitter and tagged Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and SpiceJet in his Tweet
“Hello @DGCAIndia @flyspicejet @manishasinghal Very unfortunate My passenger was travelling from Delhi to Srinagar today flight number SG 8963 but unfortunately my passenger has been put into the wrong flight by spicejet which arrived at Pune airport,” the Tweet read
Left red-faced because of the goof-up, SpiceJet officials in Pune booked Wasifa an Indigo flight to New Delhi. Simultaneously, she was transferred to Srinagar in another SpiceJet flight that landed at the Srinagar International Airport on Monday evening.
“It was a nightmare for my client. She is in a state of shock and doesn’t want to narrate her ordeal to anyone for now,” Ismail added.
Pertinently, last month, the aviation watchdog put SpiceJet under “enhanced surveillance” amid the budget airline facing multiple financial headwinds in recent months.
The move came against the backdrop of various lessors seeking repossession of aircraft leased to SpiceJet and some of the cases have been settled by the airline.
In July last year, DGCA ordered SpiceJet to operate a maximum of 50 per cent of its flights for eight weeks after several of its planes reported technical malfunction recently.
“In view of the findings of various spot checks, inspections and the reply to the show cause notice submitted by SpiceJet, for the continued sustenance of safe and reliable transport service, the number of departures of SpiceJet is hereby restricted to 50 per cent of the number of departures approved under summer schedule 2022 for a period of eight weeks,” the aviation regulator had said in its order on July 27, 2022.
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