One of the rarest incidents in the aviation industry awaited the 23 passengers of the Thiruvananthapuram-Kozhikode-Kochi-Agatti flight on Monday. The passengers were informed by the crew of Alliance Air that they were landing at Kozhikode, but to their surprise landed in Kochi instead. The flight landed at 10.30 Am in Kochi. The stranded passengers were transferred to a star hotel and were later flown, after some time to Kozhikode.

Airport sources confirmed that the flight was operated to Agatti and back, after which the passengers were taken to Kozhikode by the same flight. Of the 23 passengers one person cancelled his onward journey, airport sources said.

The reason behind the landing was as the crew was likely to cross the Flight Duty Time Limit (FDTL) if it was operated on schedule, Air India sources said. Later sources also said that the crew might have misinformed the passengers that the flight had reached Kozhikode while it had actually landed at Kochi. Imagine the hue raised, had this been a private liner!!! (AarKay)