MANAMA, 14 APRIL — Passengers have asked for financial compensation after a Pakistani International Airlines (PIA) plane flying them from Karachi to Riyadh landed at King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah.
The passengers were deeply shocked when they found themselves at the airport in the Red Sea city instead of the international airport in the Saudi capital, Saudi news site Sabq reported on Sunday.
No explanation was given how Flight 731 with more than 200 passengers on board ended up almost 1,000km west of the announced destination.
The Pakistani company provided buses to transport the passengers to the capital and offered them food and drinks, Sabq said.
Some of the passengers speculated that the plane was originally scheduled to fly to Jeddah, but accepted to take people who had booked to go to Riyadh without informing them they would be flying to Jeddah.
Other passengers called for stringent action against the pilot in case he is found to have committed the mistake of landing at the wrong airport, the news site said.
Readers’ comments were mainly sympathetic with the passengers and expressed their support as they had to be driven overland for almost 1,000km.