Nepal plane flies passengers to a wrong destination, report cites error in flight numbers

A commercial plane bound for Nepal’s Janakpur reached the wrong city on December 23, alarming and confusing all 69 passengers on board. Nepal’s leading airliner Buddha Air got caught up in a strange miscommunication after routes were interchanged for the private carrier that ended up the plane 255 kilometres from the destination city, in Pokhara, PTI reported the incident, citing sources of Kathmandu Post. Buddha Air’s flight U4505 was expected at the arrival airport of Janakpur at 3:15 pm and the airplane never made it. This led to further investigation and the plane was reported to have flown to the wrong city altogether.

Due to unfavourable conditions, the planes parked on the ground were in a hurry to complete the boarding process as soon as possible and take off. This may have caused some confusion as the flight was already delayed due to unfavourable weather conditions. Meanwhile, the mix-up happened in between the boarding and take-off procedures as the flight number for the said plane was changed in error. 

“The ground staff transferred [on paper] 69 passengers of flight U4505 to flight U4607 which actually was cleared for Pokhara by the air traffic controllers,” Managing Director of the carrier Birendra Bahadur Basnet said. Further, the air carrier admitted to serious lapses in a statement. “The difference in flight schedule between Janakpur and Pokhara was 15 to 20 minutes,” the director informed. This created confusion between the flight number and destinations of the two planes. Later, the passengers were safely brought back to the original airport after the plane was refuelled. 

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DGCA cites 'miscommunication'

Under the visual flight rules VFR, the planes were allowed to land only until 3 pm at the Pokhara airport. Meanwhile, PTI quoted an air official saying, “The weather was already causing flight delays and to make up for the flying time, Buddha Air officials decided to fly to Pokhara first.” He added that the ground staff and the flight attendant of the airlines had failed to update the pilot co-pilot about the flight number change. Adding to the statement, the air official said, “The flight attendant did make an announcement on the flight that it was heading to Janakpur. There was a miscommunication between the ground staff and the pilots,” he added. “The flying pilots also did not look at the passengers’ manifest,” the air official continued. 

“The Buddha Air incident happened due to miscommunication. It’s not part of safety lapses but it’s a serious lapse on the part of management,” Former director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Tri Ratna Manandhar, reportedly said. Manandhar added that this was the second incident of a plane flying to a wrong destination in Nepal’s aviation history. In 1993, Twin Otter of the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation had landed in Simara airport instead of Bharatpur airport.

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(Image Credit: Instagram/airbuddhanepal)