A homeward-bound Chinese traveler took an 800km wrong turn after boarding the wrong flight at Kaohsiung International Airport on Monday, an incident marking the first such flight mix-up at the airport, with the airline crew that mistakenly admitted the passenger facing disciplinary measures.
A group of Chinese tourists arrived at the airport to catch their return flight — EVA Airways Flight BR780 — that departed for China’s Zhengzhou on Monday morning, but a female traveler surnamed Li (李) was missing when the boarding began, the airline said.
She could not be found after the final boarding call was announced, so Li’s family decided to board the plane without her and leave her travel documents at the counter, while the airline notified the National Immigration Agency and airport security agents of the situation, the airline said.
The flight was delayed by 19 minutes due to the incident, the airline said.
Meanwhile, Li was onboard another plane — Mandarin Airlines Flight AE995 — and found herself in Hangzhou, about 800km away from Zhengzhou, when she disembarked two hours later, the airline said.
Security personnel discovered that Li had boarded the wrong flight via security camera footage, the airport said.
The two flights were assigned to neighboring boarding gates and scheduled to take off at similar times, and many other Chinese tourists were boarding Flight AE995, which led Li to believe that it was her flight, Mandarin Airlines said.
It did not bother Li that her family and fellow travelers were not onboard, and the seat “allocated to her” was not taken, so she did not report any irregularity to the flight crew, Mandarin Airlines said.
The crew that failed to follow proper boarding procedures and admitted Li to the flight is to face disciplinary measures and retraining, Mandarin Airlines said, adding that it had ordered a thorough implementation of security protocols to ensure that such mistakes do not happen again.
Mandarin Airlines said it had rerouted the traveler from Haungzhou to Zhengzhou via a connecting flight.
Kaohsiung International Airport director Chu Yao-kuang (朱耀光) said that it was the first flight-mixup he has ever heard of and that the airlines did not report the incident to the airport.
All passengers must pass through airport security control and customs before entering the departure lounge, and they must present their boarding pass at the boarding gate, he said, adding that the boarding pass scan system should be able to verify the passenger information.
The travel agency that conducted the group tour for Li and her family said that it was the first time that a group tourist had a flight mix-up, adding that travelers are usually stopped at the boarding gate before boarding any wrong flight.
The tour guides should be held accountable for allowing their group member to board a wrong flight, the travel agency said.
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