Oops: Nepal’s Buddha Air Flies To Wrong Airport

Oops: Nepal’s Buddha Air Flies To Wrong Airport

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We read stories like this every so often, hard as it may be to believe.

Buddha Air flies to wrong airport in Nepal

On December 18, 2020, Buddha Air accidentally operated a flight carrying 69 passengers to the wrong destination. The Nepalese airline was supposed to fly an ATR-72 from capital city Kathmandu to Janakpur, but instead the airline accidentally flew to Pokhara.

This isn’t one of those cases where an airline accidentally landed on the wrong runway or at a nearby airport, but rather the airline operated a flight to a completely different airport in the opposite direction. Janakpur is about 75 miles to the southeast of Kathmandu, while Pokhara is about 90 miles to the northwest of Kathmandu.

The airline claims it took swift action to fix the situation, and within 33 minutes of landing in Pokhara, the airline refueled and obtained permission to operate a direct flight to Janakpur, a route that isn’t usually operated nonstop. The passengers made it safely to Janakpur, though a couple of hours behind schedule.

How did this happen?

The airline blames this error on two factors:

  • Lapses in communication
  • Failure to follow detailed standard operating procedures

It’s not known whether the mix-up stemmed from a mistake by the pilots or the ground crew. I could see this having happened in one of two ways:

  • Many flights were departing around the same time, and they accidentally loaded passengers onto the wrong plane, but it was too late by the time they noticed
  • The passengers were on the right plane, but the pilots somehow mixed up flight plans, for whatever reason

As the airline describes this situation:

In Buddha Air, we believe every fall makes us stronger, thus we formed an internal investigation committee to find the root cause of this mishap to make sure it is not repeated in the future. We have modified our procedures and manuals accordingly. We have also presented the investigation report to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and will follow all directives from the authority after their inquiry.

What is Buddha Air?

For those not familiar, Buddha Air is a Nepalese airline operating a fleet of over a dozen turboprop aircraft. The airline primarily operates domestic flights, though also operates short haul international flights to India. The airline operates around 50 daily flights to 15 destinations, and has a majority of the domestic market share in Nepal.

Bottom line

On December 18 Buddha Air accidentally operated a flight to the wrong destination. A mix-up caused a flight to operate in the opposite of the intended direction, though fortunately the airline seemed to handle the situation well. While passengers did get delayed by a couple of hours, at least they ended up making it to their destination safely.

(Featured image courtesy of Solundir)

Conversations (15)
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  1. Kirk Member

    I've flown from Pokhara to KTM. No announcements from pilots, and the one FA just hands out a piece of hard candy or gum. No FAs on Lukla flights.

  2. 305 Guest

    @derek happens all the time. Two weeks ago the FA on my AA flight said the wrong flight number and destination. People on the aircraft started freaking out that we were going to San Juan instead of Philadelphia

  3. Ernest Dempsey Guest

    I love Pokhara. If I was on that flight, I'll pay them an extra 100 bucks as thanks for landing me there and I'd refuse to leave, lol.

  4. Stephen Morrissey Member

    I'd like to get on a plane to Montreal and accidentally land in Cancun.

  5. sbams Guest

    PKR versus JKR. Could have also contributed to the error

  6. The Shadow Guest

    A good way to get in a few extra hours.

  7. Kammaina Guest

    Buddha Air doing Buddhist techniques of immersing in the present and not focusing on the future or destinations.

  8. Richmond_Surrey Guest

    I read from different source, that it was lack of communication between ground crew, cabin crew and pilots. No one told pilots, that they changed flight number and loaded passengers for different destination.

  9. Jim Guest

    Pokhara is a beautiful city in Nepal. And 2nd largest and clean city. I would have gotten off that plane and stay in Pokhara instead of another flight to janakpur

  10. Sam Guest

    Air travel in Nepal is an interesting experience, a lot of the flying is VFR over short distance but through mountains so this is not surprising. No IFR landing in Lukla

  11. derek Diamond

    I wonder what the announcements were near the beginning of the flight. Some airlines don't say much.

  12. Ben Dover Guest

    They need a higher level of consciousness, or conscientiousness

Featured Comments Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Kirk Member

I've flown from Pokhara to KTM. No announcements from pilots, and the one FA just hands out a piece of hard candy or gum. No FAs on Lukla flights.

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305 Guest

@derek happens all the time. Two weeks ago the FA on my AA flight said the wrong flight number and destination. People on the aircraft started freaking out that we were going to San Juan instead of Philadelphia

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Ernest Dempsey Guest

I love Pokhara. If I was on that flight, I'll pay them an extra 100 bucks as thanks for landing me there and I'd refuse to leave, lol.

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