Rude shock for passengers as pilot lands in wrong airport

Kochi, Jan 16: A rude shock awaited passengers of an Alliance Air flight when they found the pilot had landed in Kochi though they were told they had reached their destination Kozhikode.

The Thiruvananthapuram-Kozhikode-Kochi-Agatti flight with 23 passengers landed here at 10.30 AM yesterday without proceeding to Kozhikode as the crew was likely to cross the Flight Duty Time Limit (FDTL) if it was operated on schedule, Air India sources said.

Kozhikode-bound passengers were asked to disembark and accommodated in hotels. The flight was operated to Agatti and back here after which they were taken to Kozhikode by the same flight with 22 passengers as one person cancelled his onward journey, airport sources said.

The Kozhikode-bound passengers thought they had landed at Kozhikode while they had actually disembarked at Kochi. Airport sources said the crew might have misinformed the passengers that the flight had reached Kozhikode while it had actually landed at Kochi.

PTI